Brightly Burning
by CrazyTeddyBear
Summary: The Volturi are building their forces, planning to eradicate the Cullens.But when Aro changes a powerful young girl who flees and joins Carlisle's family,the Cullens realize they may have a chance after all- but only if she survives.Post BD. Alec/OC
1. Prologue

**A/N: Normally people can come up with those really clever disclaimers that say how they're not Stephanie Meyer... yeah... no... I don't really think that that's necessary. We all know that I'm not her. Anyway, this story is post breaking dawn. Don't worry; the Cullens will be in it later, also Bella isn't the main character in this story.**

**Prologue- Memento Mori**

When I was a human, death was always a possibility, something that we lived around for our entire short lives. Always fearing, yet always accepting as well. When my grandfather died my family had told me that it was alright, death was peaceful, like closing your eyes and never waking up again. No pain. No nothing, just peace.

As much as I hate to ruin the moment of peacefulness... all I can really think right now is 'they were sure as hell wrong'. I tried to take a deep breath, a natural instinct when I felt the need to calm myself, but my body was to broken even for that. The fire sped closer to me ,flaring with sharp bursts and low flickers, mimicking the pain raging inside of me. I couldn't move, I could just wait helpless as the flames sped closer.

My family may be right, death itself may be peaceful, but I know now that dying isn't.


	2. Chapter One

**A/N: I don't really have all that much to say right now, just that the disclaimer in the prologue was meant for the entire story and that this chapter is just background info, necessary for the story, but not really all that exciting... yet.**

**Chapter One- Beginnings**

**Ari's POV (main character for this story guys, get used to her)**

I frowned at my sister across the table where we were eating breakfast. To say that she was acting like a superior bitch would be pretty accurate. She was trying to get me to take her babysitting job for her so that she could go to a house party and get drunk with her friends. I thought that it was a pretty stupid thing to do, even for her. Not because our parents would care, she's little Miss Perfect for them. Just stupid in general.

I normally would have said yes, if someone asks nicely I'll do what I can to help them. Unfortunately for sister dearest here, she didn't ask nicely. Blackmail is frowned upon in most civilized societies, as is bullying. Lucky for me I tend to ignore both, so Katie here is out of luck.

"No," I shot at her, "I am not going to waste my Saturday just because you decided that you're too mature to deal with babysitting, so you have to run off and get drunk."

"You help Sam babysit his sister all the time." True, I did, but if she thought appealing to my sense of fair play is going to help her in this particular situation... well the old saying about what goes around comes around is pretty accurate here. Wouldn't it be nice if this was karma coming and biting her in the ass?

"Sam asks nicely and doesn't try to blackmail me. Answer is still no."

She shot me a glare that could have roasted flesh and stormed up the stairs. I could hear her door slam.

I smiled slightly and walked out the door; hopefully she'll go to the party anyway and get in trouble. Aunt Sylvia will just call me and ask me to babysit, and Katie would get in trouble with the parents for once. Normally they turn a blind eye to her problems, but if mom's sister knows how spoiled a brat Katie in they'll have to do something.

Turning off the side walk around the side of the house, I started to walk down a path into the woods. It led to the park where I was meeting Sam. Some people find the woods scary, I don't really, it's just another place in the world. You're more likely to get hurt in your own house. There's really nothing wrong with the woods as long as you know what you're doing.

The way the light filters through the trees is quite pretty; it leaves little patterns of light on the ground. It's cloudy out today so there isn't very much of that, just a sense of gloom.

I turned my head to the side and stopped dead. I could swear that there was a man with a gray cloak on staring at me. His eyes were a bright ruby red, like freshly spilt blood. He had a very handsome face, but there was something about it that just wasn't human. Something that just made me want to turn and run. A cruel smile twisted his lips. Then I blinked and he was gone.

What on earth...? I did the only reasonable thing I could. I started to sprint as fast as I possibly could. Whoever the hell that man is, I most certainly don't want to be in the same forest as he is, not one little bit.

I broke clear of the trees and ran over to the bench, gasping for breath. Out in the open where everyone could see I felt a lot safer than before. Sam wasn't here yet, a good thing, I'd have time to relax. Sam would be able to tell how terrified I was right away. He'd ask me what was wrong, I'd tell him and then he'd probably say something stupid, like 'really? Let's go look for the creepy red eyed guy!'

He doesn't have a very good sense of self preservation.

I waited here for a few minutes before I saw Sam coming around the corner. He was a small kid with light blond hair; light freckles ran across his face, looking more like dust than freckles. Blue eyes with hints if gray smiled across the field from behind glasses resting on his small nose. He was always smiling and he tended to be notoriously shy.

All this was almost totally opposite to the way I looked; I had flaming, curly red hair that ran down to my back in soft ringlets. My eyes were a bright emerald green. My skin was very pale and I didn't have a single freckle. I was shy in front of large groups of people, but for the most part if I had a problem with you I was going to let you know about it.

Sam smiled at me. "Hey, Ari. What do you want to do today?"

Hmmmm... A good question, I really didn't have anything planned. We could play here at the park or we could go downtown and get something to eat. With creepy guy in the woods I think that it would probably be better to just go get something to eat. I wasn't really hungry, but knowing Sam, he was.

"Do you have money?" I asked.

"Of course. Are you planning to steal it?"

"Of course I am. No, seriously though, do you want to go get something to eat?"

"Hell yeah! I'm starved, I forgot to eat breakfast." He always does. My lips quirked up into a grin.

"You keep forgetting to eat Blondie and one day you'll shrivel up. Let's go eat."

"I am not blond!" He yelled. I should know better than to tease him about his hair colour, I really should, but it's just so tempting. Sam hates the fact that he has blond hair, the whole 'dumb blond' stereotype. He has straight A's, compared to my B- average he isn't looking all that dumb.

School and I don't really agree. The only thing I'm good at is music. I'm really good at music actually, it always feels like there's something warm glowing in me when I'm playing music or singing. My teachers, when they're not failing me, are always quick to comment on how great it sounds. My parents... not so much. Let's just say that my parents and I don't get along at all. I know they love me (or so they say...) so I put up with their shit. We do things like that for people we love.

"Of course not, sorry." Sam's my best friend, for everyone else on the planet I'd keep teasing, but, well... best friends are the family you get to choose.

We went and had a good lunch a Suzy's diner, they're the only restaurant in town and they serve good food. Yeah, Havenbeck is a bit of a hick town, but I love living here anyway. Lunch took us about two hours, so it's about noon now. Sam and his family are going on vacation for a week, so he has to go home now so that they can leave for Florida. Hope he has fun, Florida's never really appealed to me -too muggy.

I waved good bye as he walked up the driveway. "Have fun dying of heat stroke in Florida!"

He yelled back. "Have fun dying of hypothermia here in Canada!"

"It's August! If I freeze it'd be pretty pathetic." I turned and walked away grinning. Good old Sam. Now I had to choices, I can go home the normal way, meaning through the forest, and face my new-found fears, showing myself that the red-eyed man isn't really real. Or I could be a coward, taking the long way home and laughing at myself because I'm afraid of the woods.

Being the over-confident idiot I am, guess what one I'm taking.

I turned down the path that led to the forest. It took all my self control to do that and a lot of thinking 'the red-eyed guy is a figment of my imagination' over and over again. I started humming to myself. Cheesy, I know, bad horror movie just waiting to happen.

I got to the part of the path where I'd seen him standing. I'd kind of been expecting something big and scary to happen. So naturally, I'd been all tensed up, waiting for the big scary man to jump me, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

Then a bird started singing. I jumped at least a foot. And then I started laughing hysterically, I am such a stupid child, I can't believe I thought he was real.

And then I heard the twig snap behind me.

"Oh fuck."

**End of Chapter**

**I know you all hate me for that one, but hey, it's always nice to get reviews and the more reviews I get, the quicker I'll start updating, you know what button to click o n. Is it a bear?**

**Felix?**

**Demitri?**

**The red eyed man?**

**Edward Cullen?**

**Alice Cullen?**

**Take a guess, it's one of those options... but you'll never really know, not unless you review.**

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**O.K., I tried, I really did, but I'm just not that mean... here you go... I still like it if you review by the way, if you've written a story you know how great it feels.**

I tried to spin around and see what, or who, it was, but a hand reached out and covered my mouth, pinning me against what felt like a rock. The movement yanking my head back was strong enough to make me think I was going to bruise later. The hand was ice cold. Another arm reached around and pinned my arms up against my side.

I tried to get free, but it was like fighting against a rock. Literally.

"You might as well stop fighting little one, I'm bigger than you and you know it." His voice was soft, musical. I'd say it was bell like, but it was too masculine for that, a deep bass, but not with the rough feeling you normally get with that. I bet he has an awesome singing voice.

I'd normally have a thousand smart ass comments for that, but his hand was pinned over my mouth so I couldn't really say anything. Probably just as well, I'd most likely end up pissing him off. I doubt that that would be a very good idea at all.

I ignored him and kept squirming around anyway, if he wants to grab me I certainly don't plan on making it any easier on him.

"I'm not allowed to cause physical harm to you on Aro's orders, he has given me no such restrictions on your family," his face was down by my ear, I could feel his breath whispering on my face, "and you wouldn't want anything to them would you?" Well... put it that way... I stopped fighting. I have no idea who the hell Aro is, and I most certainly don't want to find out. "Nice to see you've come to your senses."

He removed his hand from over top of my mouth. I could have started screaming up a storm, but better to wait until someone can actually hear me. Might as well make him think that I'm just an innocent little girl.

He stepped around in front of me, letting go completely. I watched how he moved with a sinking feeling; he was huge, physically muscular in a way that immediately made me think stereroids. And the way he moved was so inhumanly graceful that I know if I were to try to run he would catch me in seconds. I stood their completely frozen, like a deer caught in headlights.

It was the red eyed man, and my first impression had been right, he was wearing a cloak. I thought maybe it was the shadows of the forest. Who the hell wears a cloak?

"Nice cape." I said sarcastically.

"Thank-you." Either he didn't understand sarcasm or he wasn't rising to the bait. Shame, pissing people off makes me feel better.

He took a step towards me. "What are you doing?" I asked, instinctively taking a step back.

"Kidnapping you." His arms shot out and grabbed me, pinning me against his chest in a tiny ball.

"That's just lovely; you got any other interesting hobbies? Scrapbooking? Model airplanes? Murdering children? Collecting wine, perhaps." I didn't get an answer for that. But I wasn't really paying attention anymore; red-eyed guy had started running through the woods. It was a lot less like running and a lot more like flying. The trees were a blur around us and I was terrified we'd hit something.

We stopped in a sandy clearing surrounded by ferns and trees. There was a dirt road with a blue car sitting on it. We must have gone really far, I've never seen this part of the woods before.

He tossed me through the air so I hit the ground with a bone-jarring impact. I wasn't hurt, the sand was soft enough to stop me from getting hurt, but I was stunned.

"I told you she was here, Felix." I heard another man say. I looked up, there were three other people in the clearing. The man I heard talking was tall; he had the kind of look that told you he would kick your ass in a fight. He wasn't physically huge like the red eyed man, _Felix_, but he was just as scary.

"And I believed you Demetri, you've never been wrong. After all, you are gifted." So, his name is Demetri. Peachy.

The next was a boy, he looked about my age. With medium length brown hair and the kind of half muscle, kind of tall look you get in people who are still adolescents; he was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. Demetri and Felix were both handsome, but this boy blew them out of the water. He looked bored, his face showed no emotion at all. I felt strangely drawn to him, like he was... I don't know, similar to me. Another half. The expression his face was changing too, looking faintly shocked, like someone had hit him in the face with something. I probably looked the same.

He was the first one to break the gaze, looking quickly at his feet.

That was when she walked out of the car. Her cloak was a deeper gray then the rest of theirs, almost black. She was tiny, very obviously a child, just like me and the boy. Her face was stunningly beautiful; she made the children angels you see at Christmas look hideous. But if you looked at her eyes you saw something a lot worse. Some say the eyes are the window to the soul, if that is true then her soul is evil and twisted beyond belief. How can something so innocent and pretty be so evil?

She smirked at me. "Hello Arianna, nice to see you've finally joined us." I'm starting to get a very bad feeling about this. Not that it wasn't bad enough already, but the little bitch just sent it skyrocketing.

I shot a glare at her. "What do you want?" I prefer being straight to the point in lovely little situations like this. And then she started laughing. It was a beautiful sound, like chiming bells. As lovely as it was though, it made me want to run screaming.

Her grin widened, revealing perfectly white teeth. For some reason I feel like she needs fangs. Nice long ones, that scream 'I'm a monster'. Not that she needed any help with that statement, she was doing just fine on her own.

"We would like to offer our hospitality to you, but first we have to get there. Get in the car." Felix and Demetri could probably have just thrown me in the car, but monster girl felt the need to test out how much authority she had over me, how I was going to react to orders.

As was previously stated, I don't react well to bullies. "No thanks, I don't take orders from six year olds." Her grin widened till it became a snarl, and then I was on the ground writhing in pain. It felt like I was being burned alive. I couldn't scream though, I have a problem with being stubborn. I knew that lovely little psycho bitch over there would love that I wanted to scream, so I decided not to scream.

And then I heard a voice. It was young, boyish. "Leave her be Jane, you don't have to torture her and you know it, you could probably pick her up with you pinkie, you know you're stronger than she is." I heard little Jane sigh. The pain stopped. Normally I would have been insulted by the comment, but, anything to stop the pain is O.K. with me.

"I'll listen to you this time Alec, but don't get in my way again, or next time It'll be you on the ground." Alec, the boy was Alec. I wonder why he would stop Jane from torturing me; no-one else seemed to feel the need to do anything. "Demetri." She said it like an order.

Demetri walked over and grabbed me by the throat. Literally, he just wrapped his hand around my neck and started walking over to the car, dragging me along with him. He tossed me into the back seat and slammed the door shut. I felt my neck, it was sore; I'd definitely have a bruise there.

Alec climbed into the passenger seat, damn; since I highly doubted Jane was driving that meant she definitely had to be sitting here beside me. Demetri slid into the front seat of the car. Felix slid into the right seat of the car, Jane jumped in to my left. Lovely, I'm trapped in a small area with two psychopaths I hate. What a great way to spend a car ride to hell.

**End of Chapter**

**I'm actually serious this time. I love reviews, they make my day and make me want to write more. And if I write more you get more updates...**


	3. Chapter Two

**A/N: I have the entire story written, so I'll be able to update every week. If I get over 100 reviews I'll update automatically, and over 20 reviews in a week I'll update again. So if you want the story to come out quicker... you should review [=**

**Chapter two: Beautiful Disaster**

**Arianna POV**

To say that the car ride was just awkward would be the understatement of the century. I was just sitting there, and I realized how bored I was. Yeah, getting kidnapped by super human monsters, you'd think that it would be interesting. Nope, apparently not. So to break the silence I started humming, I mean really, what else am I going to do? If it pissed off everyone one else in the car, then that's a bonus.

Jane spun around to shoot me a glare. I jerked back and rammed into Felix, told you the car ride was awkward. Jane was still glaring at me, I kept on humming, I was obviously pissing her off, but not enough to make her torture me. Yet.

Alec turned around and sighed. Actually, you could kind of tell he was trying not to laugh. "Jane, Arianna, back off." Jane turned around and looked at the window; she looked just as bored as I felt. I stopped humming. Hmm... now what can I do.

I tried to reach the radio button with my foot, but my leg wasn't long enough. I, of course, was too stubborn to stop trying. Alec watched me for a few seconds then he shook his head and started chuckling. He reached forward and pressed the button for me. Such a nice boy.

"Is that good?" He asked as the music started playing.

"Yes, thank you." See, I can be polite as long as they're being nice too.

The car ride lasted for two hours, two very long hours; before we pulled into the Toronto airport. They drove past the front doors. I would have loved to go_ uhm... collective evil people, front doors are over there, did you fry your brains or something_ but I decided against it, if they want to make mistakes then they can go right ahead. It'll give me more time to escape.

They pulled around the building into an underground parking garage. I got out of the car calmly, when Jane told me to. Let's just pretend that I 'm listening to them. I had it all planned out, get to the airport, start screaming, get rescued, go home. There we go. I looked at my watch, it was four o'clock in the afternoon. I'd been with these creeps for three hours, that is the maximum amount of time I'm going to spend with them.

Jane grinned at me. "Alec!" she seemed really happy about something. I really doubted that that is a good sign. Alec looked at me apologetically. Then this strange mist started rolling off of him. It was so faint I could barely see it, it was more like the heat waves you see over a road on a hot summer day.

Then I couldn't see anything at all.

Literally, it was like all my senses vanished. I was floating in a pool of darkness, I couldn't see, couldn't hear. I found this even worse than Jane's gift, with that at least I was still in my body, still in control. With this I was trapped, helpless. If I could control my breathing I'd be hyperventilating right now.

The feeling lasted for what felt like centuries. Eventually though, it lifted and I found myself in control again. I came awake slowly, I was totally disorientated. I was laying on the floor of the airplane, the only other people in here were Demetri and Alec. Wow, evil people are rich enough to own a private jet. That sucks.

I tried to stand up, only to almost fall down again, Alec just appeared at my side in a flash. He grabbed my arm before I could fall on my face. "Sorry about that," well... at least he's polite about using his superpowers on me. Unlike some little demon children that I can name. He guided me over to one of those white cushy armchairs. "Just sit down and close your eyes, it'll pass after a while."

I didn't want to close my eyes, but I really didn't feel well. It doesn't help that I'm not really a very good flier either, I get nauseous pretty quickly. So I did what Alec told me too. And before I knew it I was asleep...

_I was running through the forest, going so fast the trees were flying around me, I felt a deep burning at the back of my throat, I must be really thirsty. The trees around me were huge, big enough that it would take five of me to wrap my arms around it was raining slightly and everything was covered in a thick layer of green moss._

_I could sense everything around me, the feel of the rain, and the smell of the woods. And I could see everything, every minute detail. I heard someone running behind me, but I wasn't alarmed, whoever it was is supposed to be there._

_I ran by a puddle and stopped dead. I was inhumanly beautiful, my eyes were a shining gold. Alec appeared behind me His eyes were gold to. "What is it, love?"_

"_I had a dream about this once, when I was human and we were on the airplane going to Volterra."_

_He grimaced, "I still feel bad about that."_

"_You know it's not your fault, Aro made you do it." He nodded, sighing. "I wonder how I could have had a dream about the future though, that's Alice's gift, not mine."_

"_I don't know love, I just don't know."_

I woke up quickly. Alec had been right; I did feel a lot better. All except for one thing... the dream. It had seemed so real, almost as if I really was dreaming about the future. Now, you might be going 'what could be scary about that' and the answer is quite simple. I wasn't human anymore. No one wants to be a monster.

Well, one way to find out... stay alive long enough to see if it happens. I looked around, the plane had stopped moving and we were on the ground. Alec was the only one in the plane. "Sleeping beauty awakes." He joked.

It was exactly what Sam would have said. Suddenly I lost control and started to cry, it had been a long day, and I just woke up. Alec was over at my side in a flash. He looked totally shocked and a little bit scared. Alec, meet hormones, hormones, meet Alec.

"Umm... I was joking, I wasn't trying to be mean. I'm sorry?!" Poor boy had no idea what was happening.

"I'm fine," I sobbed, "It's just been a long day and that's exactly what my friend would have said, and I just want to go home."

He stood there for a few seconds, looking really awkward. If I wasn't so upset I would have started laughing. He walked over a bit more and sat down in the chair beside me giving me a hug. I'd have said it was awkward, except it just felt right for some reason.

"Everything will be fine, Ari don't worry." For some reason he didn't sound like he believed that himself. We stayed like that for a few minutes.

Then curiosity got the better of me. "Alec, we wouldn't happen to be going to a place called Volterra would we?"

He looked surprised. "Yeah, we are. Though, I`m not sure how you managed to figure that one out..."

"I had a dream about it." I shivered for a couple of seconds and he drew back.

"Are you cold?"

"No, I'm scared; I don't know what's happening to me." H hugged me again.

"You're gifted," he explained. Or at least he tried to explain, I didn't really get it.

"What?"I was frowning; I don't like it when I don't know something about myself.

"I'm not quite sure; we'll have to wait to see what it is." I don't think he got it, but I've confused him enough already, let's not bother him anymore.

I have no idea how long we sat in the chair, but I do remember feeling very pissed when Jane interrupted the peaceful moment.

"Aww, isn't this just adorable. Get in the car Arianna." I opened my mouth to reply with a 'fuck off bitch', before closing it again. It seems I've done this before and things didn't go so well last time. I stood up and walked out to the car. At least she didn't make Alec take away my senses this time. I saw Felix opening the front door of the car. I shot in front of him and jumped into the passenger's seat.

"I call shot gun," I grinned at him. See, I can be cute and child-like, you should take me home, I'm not anything to worry about.

He laughed. "No, I don't think so." He picked me up and tossed me into the back of the car, sitting down beside me. The parking lot for the airport was totally deserted and surrounded by trees. So the airplane wasn't enough for them? They had to have an airport too?

We were driving for about twenty minutes before I saw a city coming into view. It was more like a fort than a city, surrounded by huge stone walls it was looking very, very foreboding. Three guesses where Volterra is anybody?

They drove past the security guards right into the city, the streets were winding and paved in cobblestones. Buildings formed walls on either side of the car; it was like being inside a canyon. I was terrified; my heart was pounding in my chest and I'm sure my eyes were the size of saucers.

We drove until we reached a castle, something about that castle made me want to turn and run. We drove around the side and into a garage. It was filled with fast-looking, expensive cars. How much money could one group of people possibly have?

Demetri stopped the car and we all got out. I was about to make a break for the still open door, but Felix saw where I was looking and walked over, grabbing my shoulder and pushing me towards the other door. The one that led farther into the castle. I started struggling again. I know, I know, Felix could probably crush my collarbone with his pinkie, but sometimes you just get so scared you stop thinking. This was one of those times.

Felix just kept walking; he didn't slow down at all. It's like I'm the size of a two year old as opposed to a thirteen year old. Eventually I came to my senses and stopped fighting him. I walked numbly through the castle; it was actually quite majestic looking. Unfortunately I'll always look at Volterra like hell on earth, so the beauty was totally wasted on me.

We walked up to a huge pair of oak doors, they were ornately carved and at least twice my height. Despite their size, Jane threw them open like they were feathers.

The room we walked into next had three huge thrones in it, all of them were occupied. There were at least twenty other people in the room, but it was the three that sat on the thrones that drew my attention. The throne on the left had a bored looking man sitting in it, he had those same ruby eyes, but they had no emotion in them at all. Totally dead. The man to the left had long white hair, his face was cruel, I knew that all the people in this room would be able to kill me (except maybe Alec...) but this was one of the few that would enjoy doing it.

The final person, the one sitting on the center throne, was the one who would haunt my nightmares. His face held no trace of boredom, like the first one, nor such an obvious cruelty as the second person. But there was something about his very polite looking face that told me that if there was something that I needed to fear, it was definitely this man. I once said that eyes are the key to the soul, I was looking at Jane at the time, so I'm sure you'll understand how bad the situation is if I say that this man's soul, is much, much worse.

So naturally, it's going to be the one that I'm terrified of that walks down the stairs to have a chat. "Jane, I've said it before, you are absolutely wonderful. You're always a comfort to me." Jane beamed at him, her entire face lighting up. Yeah, you know there's something very wrong about someone if they look at Jane like that.

He looked at me next and I was able to get a more detailed description about how he looked. His eyes weren't the same blood red as all the others, they had a white film over top of them that made them look milky. His skin wasn't marble like everyone else's, it was more like shale.

He smiled at me. It was a really creepy smile, some people really just shouldn't smile at all unless they want to have people within a kilometre around them. And his _teeth_, they made me want turn and run for some reason. What is up with this dude? "Welcome to our castle."

I had the sudden urge to make a smart ass comment in return to that. Probably in a fake Romanian accent too, this whole place just screamed Dracula. But Alec shot me a look that said 'don't say what you're planning to, he will kill you slowly and painfully' so my mouth closed without the comment said.

Jane was holding her hand out to him, palm up. He took it, and seemed to zone out for a few seconds. What the...? He came to and nodded his head, "good work Jane, very, very good, you did everything perfectly."

I think that there are two schools of thought on that one.

He gestured for me and Jane to follow him. I shot a frantic look at Alec, who just looked back at me totally helpless. _G_o he mouthed _you'll just end up going anyway, deny him and you'll just end up going with a few broken bones._ Well, I guess that makes up my decision for me.

I followed Thing one and Thing two out the door. We walked down another passage of rough stone lit by torches. He opened up a door and I walked inside, followed by Jane. The room was quite nice unfortunately, I like having straight cut views of people, Jane and who-ever-the-hell-he-is are psychopaths, I don't like it when evil people give me a nice room. It doesn't really make that much of a difference, but...

The man took a step in my direction, I took a step back. Right into Jane, who had just closed the door. She grabbed by arms, pinning them against my back. "I don't think she likes you very much Aro." He voice sounded light, innocent, and childish. You could tell she practically worshipped the ground_ Aro_ walked on.

Aro smiled at her. "It doesn't really matter all that much Jane. I can hold her here by force if I need to, her not liking me doesn't really matter all that much to me."

Aro ran a hand down my cheek. "So much talent in one tiny human. It will be intriguing to see how you turn out as one of our kind."

He took another step towards me. He was so close I could feel him breathing on the top of my head. Jane shifted so she was pinning my arms with one hand, her other hand yanked my head back as far as it could go. Aro leaned forward and sank his teeth into my neck.

It was as if there were waves of fire crashing over my head and down onto me with such force it threw the breath out of my chest, I couldn't breathe, I was choking on the flames. Yet I still had enough air to beg, to scream for someone just to take pity in me, to kill me, anything was better than this ocean of pain, anything.

Another wave of fire crashed over top of my head, pulling me under and making the pain even worse. If I wasn't on fire I'd be sobbing hysterically. How on earth was it possible for anything to make the pain even worse?

But even I couldn't make jokes, the pain was so bad. I'd take anything instead if this, a million broken bones, a billion hours of Jane's torture, someone make it stop. I'm going to go insane.

MAKE IT STOP!!! But the waves just kept crashing farther and farther over my head pushing me down deeper and deeper. I was going to die in this ocean of flame. For what felt like a millennia I was battered by the waves of fire, screaming for someone to kill me.

Eventually it felt like I was pushed to the shore, like I was laying on dry land, but instead of going away the ocean of fire had gone inside of me, the pain was receding into my chest where the last thing of me that was still alive was, it was trying to smother my heart, to turn it to ash.

I felt another burn in my throat, it was different then the raging ocean of flame in my chest, more dull, like I was just very, very thirsty, as opposed to drowning in an ocean of flame.

My heartbeat was fluttering like a humming bird, you could tell that it was about to give way to the roaring ocean of fire. Then, with a huge jolt that shook my body, my heart stopped.

The ocean of fire had disappeared, only to leave a sea of ice in its place.

**A/N: there's chapter number two, guys. Maybe if you all review I'll get chapter three up quicker [;**


	4. Chapter Three

**A/N: Here's the third chapter, I hope you all enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, then you should leave a review. Really, I love them.**

**Chapter Three- Demons and Angels**

**Arianna POV**

I opened my eyes and looked around in shock. Everything was so beautiful, the cracks running through the rock ceiling above my head that formed patterns, the way the light caught the dust motes in the air that made them seem to glow. It all seemed to have this magical effect to it.

I felt kind of strange though, not bad, just strange. I stayed still for a few seconds, like I was a statue carved out of ice. And that's when I realized I wasn't breathing at all. I took a deep breath; the smells were just as defined as the things that I saw, everything had a scent to it, the bed sheets had a musky odour, not dirty, just as if no one had slept in them for a long time, so no one had bothered changing them. I could even smell food cooking down in the city. Strange, you'd think I'd be hungry after that, but the food didn't seem appealing at all.

And my hearing... I could hear people whispering from what I thought was the other end of the city, before I couldn't even hear people shouting a few rooms over if the door was closed. I picked up on every tiny bit of sound now,

All of my physical senses were such a huge shock to my mind, but my mind though, that was the biggest shock of all. It had so much room in it; I knew that now that I had entered this life I would never forget anything at all. When I was human we could always change our physical bodies, working out, getting glasses, but never to this extent, and we could never change our minds like this. _What's happened to me?_

I sat up in the bed. Looking over to the other side of the room I saw Jane and Aro. What the hell? I could swear they both were glowing, almost like they had auras of colour. Aro was glowing a deep, powerful blue, but both of them had barely any light coming off of them, it was like whatever was making them glow wasn't entirely there right now. And guess what colour Jane has, blood red. Suits her personality perfectly doesn't it?

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling just fine, kind of dead, but at least I don't have onion skin. That was one of my biggest fears you know," I nodded at him seriously. "I definitely do not want to end up looking like _you_."

He looked at me carefully, the way one would look at a frog about to be dissected. Damn, I didn't even get a rise for the onion skin comment. He took a step forwards, before I could even react he grabbed my hand. There was a flash of his blue-glowing-aura-thing. I hissed at him instinctively. Wait... I hissed? What is happening? Last time I checked I was human, but that's not a human response.

Aro nodded, taking a step back and letting go of my hand. The blue glow disappeared. "You are confused that the reactions you're having, the things you're feeling and seeing aren't things you would have had three days ago." Wait... what? Three days ago? That would make it August the twenty-second. My family must be freaking out.

How did he know that though? It's like he read my- He read my mind! That evil, nosey... I let out a small snarl. "You read my mind." He nodded. "Without asking." He nodded again, smirking at me. It was the kind of smirk that said 'there's nothing you can do about it' and that really pissed me off. I let out another snarl, louder this time, with more force behind it. "Fuck off and leave me alone." I spat.

"No, I don't think I really want to." Was all he said in response. I heard Jane snickering. I'd swear the two of them were trying to piss me off on purpose.

"I'm shocked she hasn't lunged for your throat yet Master, any other newborn would have. She really does have absolutely amazing control," murmured Jane.

"So am I, she has quite a little temper too." Aro nodded in agreement with Jane's comment.

"But the reason you feel like this Arianna, the moods swings included, is that you aren't human anymore, you're one of our kind, a vampire."

That was all it took to make me lose control. These people had the urge to kidnap me and kill me, and I couldn't get any peace even after I'm fucking _dead._ I let out a shriek of fury and lunged for his throat.

I didn't even get halfway there before a flash of red shot out of Jane and pinned me to the ground, writhing in pain. It went on for five minutes and fifty-three seconds, how she managed to keep it going that long I'm not sure, but when she finally took it off I was too stunned to move.

She walked the two steps further and lifted me off the ground by my throat. "Do you think you can behave now, or do we have to do that again?" She breathed into my ear. I would have turned and tried to get her to let go of me, except I knew she would be able to take my head off before I did that. Her teeth were right beside my neck, and I instinctively knew that that was a very bad thing.

See, as pathetic as it sounds, Jane is about the same height I am, I'm a bit short, just short enough she can pin my neck to her shoulder with one hand, grab my arms with the other, but still be able to bite my head off without bending down. Lucky me, huh?

Aro nodded, "looks like we're going to have to discuss some rules, Arianna. We'll start big, with what everyone else in the vampire world knows, which is; you don't provoke the Volturi, not unless you want to die. I am one of the Volturi, ignoring my orders, trying to escape, attacking someone, little things like that, will make me very, very angry. You really don't want to see me angry, child, someone may not survive the experience." His voice never changed tone from before, it still stayed perfectly polite, but it became a lot scarier.

He smiled at me, but it held no friendliness. He gestured for Jane to follow him, she let go of me and I stumbled forward. "We'll be back later Arianna, think things over for a bit." They walked out and closed the door behind them. I heard the lock click into place.

I stood there, stunned. I could have broken the door down, hell, I could have gone through the wall. But I knew that they would hear it, and I really didn't want Aro to have to go through on his threats. I doubted he'd kill me, that would be an awful waste after he went through so much trouble to get me here, but I bet that after he was done I'd be wishing with all my heart that I was dead.

I curled up on the bed in a ball. I certainly wasn't going anywhere, after all. I felt a strange stinging behind my eyes. You know when you're about to start crying and you fell the tears start to go in your eyes? It was just like that, except that I had no tears, I couldn't even cry to make myself feel better. I started dry-sobbing, curled around my pillow. I just want to go home, to be able to joke with my friends; I don't want to be locked in a castle halfway across the world. I want to go home.

But, we all know that's not a possibility. I'm trapped in a castle with the two most psychotic people on the planet. So I stayed there, curled up in a ball, weeping bitterly.

I heard someone knock on the door. "Go away!" I hissed. All the sadness disappeared and was replaced by a deep, burning rage.

"Ari, it's Alec, can I come in?" I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted him to come in, I mean he seemed nice enough, but he was also one of them.

"Please? I'll go away if you don't want me to..." He may be one of them, but technically, I'm one of them too. He's the only person in this whole castle who's given me a choice. And I need to be able to talk to somebody.

"No it's fine, come in." I sniffed. I sounded strange, when I was human my voice would have been all scratchy, but now it still sounded like wind chimes.

I heard the door open. "It'll lock from the other side if you close it all the way." I warned.

I could practically feel him smile slightly. "It's all right, I have the keys to the door."

"So what brings you here?" Why stop to visit the dangerous newborn that may decide to rip your head off?

"I heard you crying and decided to come and see if I could cheer you up." I looked up and gasped slightly, Alec was glowing too. His was a pale grey, kind of like mist. It looked like he was surrounded by a cloak of fog, but I thought it was beautiful for some reason.

"What?" He asked curiously.

"You have a glow too." He kept looking at me funny, so I decided to explain more. "You look like you're surrounded in mist. Jane and Aro both glowed too, except Aro's was dark blue and Jane's was blood red."

His eyes narrowed slightly and you could tell he was thinking. "Did you notice anything else about the glow?"

"It flashed whenever they did things."

"What things?"

"Aro read my mind and Jane made me feel like I was on fire."

Alec let out a low snarl. "I think I need to have a chat with my sister about that."

I stopped dead. "Jane is your sister?" I probably should have noticed. They looked almost identical.

He looked embarrassed. "Yeah, she's my sister. It doesn't really matter much though; we don't get along very well." Yeah, if I had a sister like Jane I doubted I would get along with her very well either.

I let it drop. You could tell he was uncomfortable about it. "So do you know what the glow is?"

He shook his head. "If I could take a wild guess, I'd say you're seeing people's gifts. Jane, Aro and I all have gifts above the norm of our kind. I bet if you looked at yourself you'd be glowing too."

It made sense. I looked at my hand and realized that he was right, I was glowing too. It was a faint glow, pure white. I nodded, "I do glow!" how could I have not noticed that before? "Is this why Aro changed me? Because he thought I would be gifted?"

Alec nodded. "He sent us out because you were showing the signs of having a very powerful dormant gift. Remember when you were in the car and you started humming, Jane turned to glare at you?" I nodded slowly. "She was trying to torture you."

"But nothing happened..."

"Exactly! Only one person has ever stayed standing during Jane's assaults, Arianna." He said seriously "Bella Cullen, she was still Bella Swan when she came to rescue Edward Cullen, her mate. Aro was intrigued because she was immune to Edward's gifts, so he told Jane to torture her. Nothing happened. She's caused Aro quite a few problems. I'd send her a present for it, but I doubt she'd react well to having a Volturi guard send her a gift. You need to be careful, if Aro thinks you have any chance of being a problem like she is, he'll take steps." I didn't need to ask what steps Aro would take, he made that pretty clear a few minutes ago.

"So I was immune to Jane's gift when I was humming, but not any other time. How does that work?"

"Every one's gifts are controlled by different things like anger, the need to protect someone, imagining something happening. I think with you its singing. We'd have to perform some tests to see though."

That seemed simple enough. I began to hum tunelessly. I felt a warm glow start to glow inside of me, and the white light coming from my skin got stronger. Alec's gift sprang into life, but my light wiped it out, like it was purifying the air around me. Alec beamed, "It worked! Let's see how far we can push it... try singing with actual lyrics now, put as much feeling and emotion into it as you can. Then I want you to try to strengthen or weaken my gift. O.K?"

I did what Alec told me to and began singing. At first it was hesitant, but then I realized with the way my voice had changed it could be inhumanly beautiful, if I put my heart into it. So that's exactly what I did.

_How can you see into my eyes like open doors_

_Leading you down into my core, where I've become so numb_

_Without a soul, my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold_

_Until you find it there and lead it back home_

_Wake me up!_

_(Wake me up inside)_

_I can't wake up!_

_(Wake me up inside)_

_Save me!_

_(Call my name and save me from the dark)_

_Wake me up!_

_(Bid my blood to run)_

_I can't wake up!_

_(Before I come undone)_

_Save me!_

_(Save me from the nothing I've become)_

As the lyrics increased in strength, my power ebbed and flowed as well. Like a living breathing thing the power had a life of its own. I took control, building up and directing itself at Alec, making him stronger. You could see his eyes light up in wonder with what he's feeling.

_Now that I know what I'm without_

_You can't just leave me_

_Breathe into me and make me real_

_Bring me to life_

_Wake me up!_

_(Wake me up inside)_

_I can't wake up!_

_(Wake me up inside)_

_Save me!_

_(Call my name and save me from the dark)_

_Wake me up!_

_(Bid my blood to run)_

_I can't wake up!_

_(Before I come undone)_

_Save me!_

_(Save me from the nothing I've become)_

I reversed the power, bringing it back into me, sucking the power out of him until I thought he was about where he was before. I could feel it building up like a rushing dam. I had to do something with it, so I tried bringing it into myself, changing the colour of my own gift.

_Bring me to life_

_I've been living a lie, _

_there's nothing inside_

_Bring me to life_

_Frozen inside without your touch_

_Without your love, darling_

_Only you are the life among the dead_

_All this time, I can't believe I couldn't see_

_Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me_

_I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems_

_Got to open my eyes to everything_

_Without thought, without voice, without a soul_

_Don't let me die here_

_You promised me sacrifice_

_Bring me to life!_

And it worked! That was when I realized the true extent of my new-found gift. I could imitate the colours of every gift on the planet, which meant I could use every gift on the planet. While I was exhilarated, I was also terrified. With a gift so powerful, Aro would never let me leave. I'd be trapped here like a slave for all eternity.

_Wake me up!_

_(Wake me up inside)_

_I can't wake up!_

_(Wake me up inside)_

_Save me!_

_(Call my name and save me from the dark)_

_Wake me up!_

_(Bid my blood to run)_

_I can't wake up!_

_(Before I come undone)_

_Save me!_

_(Save me from the nothing I've become)_

_Bring me to life_

_I've been living a lie _

_There's nothing inside_

_Bring me to life..._

As the last echoes of music floated away, the power faded as well. Both Alec and I were left sitting totally stunned in a silent room.

That is until Aro pushed the door open chuckling. Oh fuck... we are so dead. "Now wasn't that interesting, turns out you have a very powerful gift after all. Looks like you'll be staying with us for a while." He grabbed my hand, and before I could block his gift there was the huge flash of blue. "Looks like that's not the only thing you discovered either," he threw a look at Alec. "It would appear that Marcus was right about the relationship after all."

He turned away from me and walked over to Alec. His voice became low and dangerous, "I thought I told you to stay out of this room Alec." You could see Alec gulp. Aro reached forwards and grabbed his hand, there was the obvious flash. "I do not care." He responded to Alec's thoughts. "It could be the same as the bond between Romeo and Juliet for all I care. Get out before I make you." Alec looked at me. I made a shooing gesture with my hand.

I didn't want him in trouble with Aro, hell, I didn't want anyone in trouble with Aro. This was his castle, and even outside of Volterra the rules were simple. Provoke the Volturi and you are probably going to die a very slow and very, very painful death.

Aro turned towards me, "Here is your cloak," he threw a long gray thing at me, "wear it within the castle at all times."

I picked it up. I opened my mouth to make a comment, probably something along the lines of; _does your fashion sense disappear when you become a vampire, or is that your own, personal, problem._

I decided against it though. Let's not make Aro any more angry than he is now. Alec was playing with something on the table, really Alec, Aro's back is turned right now, but if he turns around and sees you doing that... well you'd better hope you're not up to anything. Aro walked out the door, Alec straightened up right before he turned around. "Come along Alec, I think you're going to have to stay in your room from now on too."

The door clicked into place and I was left alone. I waited until I heard them get a few hallways over before I got up and walked over to the table. I couldn't see anything out of place, but I knew Alec had been doing something. I got down on my knees and looked at the bottom of the table. There was a key there, and a folded up piece of paper.

Alec is both brilliant and suicidal, Aro read his mind before he did it, so the chances of Aro finding out are less, and he did it when Aro's back was turned, but it was still a very, very risky thing to do.

I opened the note.

_I thought you might want this._

_Wait until about 6:30. Go for the window down the_

_hall and get out. Don't worry about me,_

_I can take care of myself._

_-Alec_

**End of Chapter**

**The song that Ari sang when she was training her gift was **_**Bring Me To Life**_** by **_**Evanescence**_**. I don't own it, I just borrowed it.**


	5. Chapter Four

**A/N: And here is Chapter Four- this one is one of my favourite chapters. Enjoy, and if you do, leave a review...**

**Chapter Four- Ghosts of the Past**

**Arianna POV**

It was agonizing to wait till six thirty. I wanted to get out, and I wanted to get out immediately. But I knew Alec wouldn't have told me to leave exactly then without a good reason. It would be a poor way to repay the risks he took if I went and got caught.

I was worried about Alec, but there isn't anything I can do about it, and that really pisses me off. I knew that if I tried to find him in this huge castle then I would get caught for sure. All I could do was follow his orders, and he knows it too. Stupid masochistic idiot probably planned it so I would have to leave before he did.

I could hear all the people in the castle moving to the throne room, I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing. Aro said something; I couldn't quite make out the words. There was a moment afterwards that no-one moved or said anything. In that brief moment of silence I could hear heartbeats. Why would humans be in the castle?

I grabbed the key and the cloak Aro gave me and opened the door. I threw the cloak on so that if I ran into anyone, hopefully they wouldn't see my face. Looking cautiously around the hallway, I began to walk to the window. I looked out; of course I've got to be on the top floor of the castle. It's one thing to say I'm an immortal vampire that shouldn't be hurt by jumping off the top floor of a castle. It's quite another thing to actually throw one's self off the top floor of said castle.

I took a deep breath and swung my leg over the railing. I may never have jumped, except, right at that moment I started hearing the screams coming from the throne room. They were killing people. All it took was that, I decided that I would rather be dead than stuck in a castle with them.

I jumped over and started to fall.

I ran my hand down the side of the wall as I fell, too afraid to let go of the wall, I figured I could always grab onto something to stop my fall. Of course I wasn't expecting a hand to shoot out and grab me.

With the speed I was falling the gesture would have ripped my arm out of its socket if I was a human, but, being a vampire, it didn't even hurt a little bit. I hung there for a few seconds, held up by the unknown hand before whoever it was pulled me back inside.

The unknown hand belonged to a tall man with dark hair and red eyes. His gift was dark black and billowed around him like a storm cloud. He smiled at me, but it was less of a smile and more of a 'you are so busted' look. "Now you wouldn't have been trying to leave, would you?" His voice was warm and smooth, it was a compelling voice, the kind you would expect a hypnotist to have.

"No!" I shook my head back and forth.

"What were you doing then?"

"Trying to see if vampires could turn into bats if they were pressured to do so." See, I am an idiotic, harmless child. You should let me keep 'playing'.

His smirk grew to reveal perfectly white teeth. I automatically took a step back. "Sure you were. I think we need to have a little chat with Aro." Damn, I guess he doesn't think I'm a harmless child.

His voice changed tone. "Walk." I felt myself being pushed out of my body and the man's gift taking over instead. I tried to struggle against it, but my body just kept going without my consent. I could feel his presence in my mind like a warm, dark, cloud. I tried to push him out of my mind, but nothing happened. _"Stop fighting it, it just makes it harder."_

My response to that was to stop fighting, he had such complete control of my mind that I had to follow even that order, and I couldn't do anything about it. He took me to the throne room; it was almost empty this time, only a small group of other people were there. He released the control and I stumbled forward.

As soon as he let go I felt the burning erupt in the back of my throat. My hand flew to my throat. In my room there had been nothing to feed off of, and the man had kept it in control when he took over my body. But now there was nothing to control it and it roared up like a monster. I looked around and started inspecting the people in the room. Anything to distract myself from the inferno in the back of my throat.

There was a medium height man with blonde hair, he glowed a greenish brown. Aro and Jane were both there as well. There was also a tall woman with midnight black hair, she glowed a deep violet, and a small blonde haired girl that gave off a hypnotizing blue light. Felix and Demetri were in the group too. Wow, all my favourite people in one room. Do you think we'd get lucky and have a nuclear bomb dropped on us right now?

Aro glided towards us. I hissed and took a step back. Afton grabbed my arm to stop me from bolting.

"What is it Afton?" He threw a look at me and you could tell he had guessed what happened.

Afton shrugged. "She was trying to leave, master. She was almost gone too. If I had been a second later I wouldn't have even seen her." He held out his hand to Aro. Aro took it and nodded his head, understanding.

He turned to look at me. The look he gave me was less than friendly. He took a step towards me. I began to hum, trying to block his gift, it would just make him angrier than before, but it would stop him from finding out about Alec's involvement for a while.

Of course, I hadn't been excepting what happened. Afton changed his grip on my arm so I couldn't move an inch; Aro lunged forwards and jammed his hand into my neck, crushing my windpipe. That hurt. I tried to breathe, but all that came through was a thin stream of air in a whistling sound. Aro smirked. "That's about perfect, enough so you can still feed, but you definitely won't be able to anything else for a while. Especially sing." He pulled a vial of a clear substance from his pocket. Afton yanked my head back and Aro poured whatever-it-is into the cracks that now riddled my throat. "That will keep it from healing until I decide to wash it out. I told you there would be consequences if you tried to escape."

He gestured for Afton to follow, and the two of them marched me down the stairs. Of course... this castle has a dungeon area. Why not? It wasn't your typical dungeon though, it had steel doors that were about four meters thick each, with diamond and titanium layers in between. If you looked into the rooms the walls, ceiling and floors were the same as the doors. Not even a newborn vampire (I don't really count as a newborn, I have super strength for me, but I'm such a midget compared to the other vampires that my newborn rush is probably normal). Aro grabbed my hands. He sighed. "Afton, go grab Alec, it would appear he needs to join her." Damn! I tried to snarl, but all that came out was a little hissing noise.

Aro laughed viciously, "That cracks me up every time. Please, do keep trying to talk." He shoved me into the room and slammed the door shut. A four meter thick door can make a huge boom.

I sat in the corner of the room. It was tiny, about the size of a closet. My throat hurt in so many different ways it was not funny, the first and most obvious problem was that it was filled with cracks and tiny fissures, which hurt like hell, then there was the fact that the crap Aro poured into them made them hurt even more. And even after all that my throat still managed to be a raging inferno from thirst, how that was possible I didn't know.

I tried to pull the hideous cloak around me like a blanket, the room was so cold and hard I needed to get warmth from whatever I could. Even the cloak that represented pretty much everything I hated. Yeah, you know your life (or death) sucks when.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall. There were three pairs of them. I heard the door swing open; it was Aro with Alec and the small blonde girl from the throne room. They pushed Alec in and closed the door again.

"Lovely," he muttered under his breath, sitting up and looking at the wall they had just thrown him into, "I definitely need to get a new family." He looked at me, "You must have made quite an impression, Ari. Aro only ever throws people he thinks are completely untameable in here."

I couldn't answer of course, but Alec didn't know that. It was too dark in her to make out anything other than body-shape, even with super vampire sight. A human would have been totally blind. He waited for a couple of seconds before coming over to me. "Ari? Ari? Say something please? Hell, can you move? Please don't tell me Afton put you in a coma..."

I sat up and took the cloak out from around my neck, and pointed. "Ummm..." he tried to guess. "There's something wrong with your throat? You're really thirsty?"

I shook my head and grabbed his hand, lifting it up to my destroyed throat. He snarled softly, realizing what had happened. "Oh I am going to kill Aro," you could practically feel the rage boiling off him, "no-one should ever do this to you."

I shrugged and grabbed his hand again. He groaned, "please don't tell me they hurt you somewhere else?" I pushed his hand down to the floor, there was a thick layer of dirt. I moved his fingers so that he was pointing at the ground and used his hand as a pencil so he could feel what I was writing.

_How can Afton put me in a coma?_

"He uses his creepy brain-washing trick and locks your mind within itself, it lasts about a week before your mind can break the cycle and get free, but during that week you aren't going anywhere- there are quicker ways to get out of it, but I wouldn't recommend those unless you're really desperate. He can make it trigger if you try to do something like use your gift and he's set it to go into a coma if you do that, it only works once if he sets it to trigger though. He and Aro only use it if they're desperate. Normally they use other ways to immobilize you." He paused for a second, "Anything else... love?" he was being careful, I could tell. He didn't want to screw it up. But if he felt the same way I did he didn't really have a choice- the bond was there and it wasn't going anywhere.

You could practically feel him blush after that word _love_ slipped out, but he never tried to deny it. Strange, but in the dream on the plane he called me love too. So far it had all proved to be true. Hopefully the rest of it would be true too.

_Did you mean that last part?_

"Yes," the answer was quick, but you could tell he meant it. Finally.

_Good._

I snuggled up against him. I was rejoiced, I wasn't alone anymore. And strangely enough, you could feel the happiness coming off him too. Amazing how even the dankest prison cell can be nicer if you're with someone you love. "I never thought this would happen. Not in a million years."

_What?_

"Most of the vampires turned our age never find a mate, we can develop family bonds, but we're just not old enough to find one. Even though we're mates we won't be able to do the things normal mates do. It'll be almost closer to a very brother-sister bond than a mate-mate bond."

_We can have more fun because our minds aren't clogged up with all that sex. _

"I never said we couldn't have any fun Ari, just that we can't have sex." He chuckled. We were sat still for a few minutes, enjoying the moment. Well... enjoying the moment as much as we could considering that we were being held in a steel plated room underneath a castle against our will by a three-thousand year old psychopath.

_Alec?_

"Yes, love?" You could tell he really liked that nickname. I bet he doesn't use my real name again for a year or so. I don't really mind though.

_Tell me a story please._

"What story would you like?" well... given the current circumstances I think it would be a good idea to know more about him.

_Yours, if it's okay with you._

"It is I'm warning you though, it's a fairly long story. I'm about a thousand years old." I shrugged. The longer the better, it would give us something to do. Besides he'd been present for everything that had happened in my life, it's only fair I get to know his.

"I was born here in Italy, though it wasn't known as Italy at the time. I lived in a tiny village about an hour away from here with Jane and my parents. Jane wasn't the same then as she is now; she was more free spirited and wild, and a hell of a lot nicer. She was a little bit like you actually, except more open to corruption, Aro turned her into the psycho bitch we know today. It was the middle of summer and there was a visiting priest in the village, he was a strict catholic who believed strongly in burning anyone who he considered to be 'susceptible to witch craft'.

"He saw Jane and me and immediately decided that we were the spawn of Satan. He declared that we were witches and that we were to be burned at the stake as soon as possible, lest our town face the wrath of god. And who were our parents to stand against god?" He laughed bitterly. "Aro had been watching us for a few years, he had planned to wait until we were older before he turned us, but the priest forced his hand." His laugh got even darker.

"I don't know if you've noticed yet, but Aro doesn't react well to people who force him to do things."

I looked around the cell we were in.

_Yeah... I did notice. We're kind of locked in a pit underneath hell after all._

"I thought you might have." He paused, re-gathering his thoughts. "They were tying us to the stakes when he got there. The entire guard started slaughtering the village, at the time there was no need to keep the secret of our race; Aro had killed everyone out of sheer spite. He started to change Jane and me immediately; we were so close to death. We had been locked somewhere similar to this for a week without food and water. Another hour even and we would have been dead.

"I woke up after Jane did. She had taken to Aro with a vengeance. To her he was the ultimate father figure, the best protector on the planet. I was less likely to trust him. If I had been even a little bit more willing to trust him I'd be where Jane is now. But I was the calmer of the two of us, the one more likely to think things through. I realized that there were quite a few reasons not to trust the demon-man

"My gift, when I'm not being forced to misuse it, is meant to take away harm- to stop pain. Unfortunately it rarely gets used that way. It- when Aro's not trying to get me to get me to kill people with it- matches my personality perfectly, I hate hurting people. I'm shocked I've managed to keep that attitude under the current circumstances. You'd think that after so much killing I'd become numb to it, but I haven't. I wish I could try out the Cullen's lifestyle, but Aro will not let a guard go around with golden eyes. He thinks of them as the enemy.

"So I was naturally suspicious of Aro. After all, he kept killing stuff, and trying to get me to kill stuff too. I couldn't stand it. Jane couldn't understand why I didn't like it, it seemed perfect to her, her personality was changing quicker than I could believe. She was always wild; you could tell why the priest immediately tried to burn us. But that freedom of spirit had morphed into pushy evil. We started fighting more often. Her need to kill things instantly triggered a negative reaction when it collided with my personality.

"The final straw was when I ran away for the first time. Demetri and Afton dragged me back to Volterra, Aro was angry with me. Jane thought whatever Aro did so she was angry too. She thought I was an ungrateful, spoiled brat. I returned the favour by thinking she was an evil, twisted monster. After that I can truthfully say that we could easily kill each other.

"Aro delivered an ultimatum to me then. Either I could stay and do what he told me in Volterra, or he could cause huge disasters that would destroy millions of people. I didn't believe him, I hadn't yet grasped how evil he was. I didn't think it was possible for one person to hurt that many people. So, I tried to run away again. I didn't want to be used like a weapon of mass destruction anymore.

"They caught me, of course. I managed to last about a year before they dragged me back again. Aro then proved that he had meant what he said. He caused the first crusade, the first one itself killed hundreds of people. But the ripple effect itself caused even more damage. I never tried to run away again for five centuries.

"Those five centuries were probably the worst days of my eternal life. I wasn't joking when I said Aro was using me like a weapon of mass destruction. I had to pretend to like Jane in public too. I still do. We both hate that. The only thing we can agree on now is that we hate each other

"Aro continued to gain power, he may be a twisted bastard Ari, but he is one _powerful_ vampire. No one ever stands up against him." I could feel Alec grinning, "well... no one except you."

_You know, somehow I think you've stood up against him a time or two too , it takes a lot to make him want to kill someone as much as he does you._

Alec laughed. "Yes, but that's beside the point. Now where was I... As I said, Aro was gaining power. It was getting to the point where I believed that the amount of trouble that he was causing was equal to what would happen if I ran away again. I realized that I had to get away from Volterra soon. The Romanians had just fallen; the Volturi became the most powerful vampire coven in the world.

"So I tried to run away again. Demetri caught me again, but I lasted three years this time. Age was making me wiser. Aro started world war one, because of that. Aro kept on gaining power, I was starting to get nervous, if that continued than there wouldn't be anyone powerful enough to stop him. I tried running away again; I lasted six years that time. Take a wild guess what war Aro caused that time?"

_World War Two?_

"Yep. I waited for a chance to run away again, biding my time. Then the Cullens started becoming very, very threatening to Aro. Their family was growing quickly. Word was that they had created an immortal child.

_A what?_

"A young child or infant that has been changed into a vampire. They are considered to be the greatest taboo of the vampire world. Turn a child and the first vampire you come across will kill you. Aro took the fact that the Cullens had created one as an excuse to kill them. He and Carlisle Cullen had been friends once, even though they were total opposites. Carlisle Cullen is about the most peace-loving man that you'll ever meet, but he and Aro were both very inquisitive and that held them together for a few decades. After a while they parted ways.

"Aro gathered us all together, the entire guard, the wives, and a whole group of witnesses. And we went off to slaughter the Cullens. The Cullens stood their ground; they had gathered a group of witnesses too. It was less like a group of witnesses and more like and alliance, though. They were powerful, even more powerful than we were. Aro was furious when he got back. Everything was chaos for a while. I took the opportunity to run away again. I figured anything to tip the balance into the Cullen's favour would be good.

"I managed to stay away for seven and a half years, another new record. When they finally managed to drag me back the changes were obvious. Aro is planning for war Ari, that's why he grabbed you. The guard has grown to about twice its original size. Aro is gathering an alliance of covens as well. A few have gone to join the Cullens, their alliance is reforming- not just a group of witnesses, but a battle ready group of warriors."

_What next?_

"Our world is quietly preparing for war Ari, the only question is what side do we want to be on?"


	6. Chapter Five

**A/N: This chapter has some important stuff in it, but for the most part it's just comic relief. That said, it's really not hard to leave a review guys. If all of you reviewed when you put the story on alert/favourite, then you would've had an update ages ago! =]**

**Chapter Five- And the World Spins Madly On**

**Alice POV:**

It was our first day at the new school. We had relocated to Canada, there just weren't enough places in the USA that were rainy and that the people wouldn't remember us in. We were in Oakharbour, Newfoundland now.

When I say we, I mean Jasper, me, Carlisle, Bella, Edward, Rosalie and Emmett. Renesmee and Jacob had decided to stay in La Push. Jacob was needed to help with the huge boom in the werewolf population, and Renesmee had stayed with him. Their wedding had been last month. Life had gone on as it had before the Volturi incident, but we knew that it wouldn't last. Aro was quietly trying to get enough power to wipe us off the face of the planet.

And scarily enough he was almost there. Stefan and Vladimir were dead, Aro made a split second decision to go and kill them off. I didn't even have enough time to call them before it was all over. Despite how bad it sounds, I can't really say I'll miss them. Half of the Egyptian coven had gone over to the Volturi. Amun and Kebi had decided it was too risky to stay on our side.

Everyone else was coming to our house, no-one wanted to risk being on their own. I'm not sure why Carlisle even bothered enrolling us in the school. We were probably just going to end up pulling ourselves out when the fighting started.

To top things off I wasn't able to see anything other than fuzzy images from Volterra, which means_ someone_ is changing into a vampire. In the long distance, going past the fuzzy patch there are two big possible futures. Either Aro wins the war, or we do. And it's all triggered by whoever is changing right now, and I can't see them.

Some things are very, very strange. I kept getting things about Alec and a red haired girl that I've never seen before. I hadn't really seen all that much about Alec. I had always just thought that he was like the rest of the guard; heartless and mindless, totally devoted to Aro, and with a really scary gift. Aro was making all the decisions about us so I concentrated on him instead.

I'm starting to think that that was a mistake, but I can't see anything clearly until whoever is being turned in Volterra dies.

I'll check again at lunch time, whoever it is should be done by then.

**Edward POV**

I hate high school, I really, really do. It's boring and repetitive, and totally useless. The fact that every student and teacher in the school start to lust after us the minute we walk through the door only adds to the discomfort. Lucky me, I get all their twisted fantasies about my wife played in my head because I can read their minds. I'm surprised I haven't killed anyone yet.

I walked into the cafeteria.

Alice was sitting at the table. She had the zoned-out look on her face that said she was checking the future. I went and grabbed some food to eat and went and sat down at the table too. Everyone was staring at Alice.

I heard her thoughts, she was checking Volterra again. Whoever was changing is finished, she can see clearly again.

She checked Aro first, he had made no big decisions over the three days, but something was clearly worrying him.

_Aro walked down the long hall in his castle, frowning. Caius looked up, "I told you it was a bad move to change that child. She is too powerful; she has already tried to escape once. She appears to be doing exactly what Alec does, she hates killing so she'll keep trying to leave, but she's powerful enough to succeed where Alec failed._

_Aro glared at him. "Alec is older than she is and craftier, he has not managed to escape yet and neither will she."_

_Marcus sighed; his voice never lost the bored tone. "I think you're both missing the big threat. It's a mate-to-mate bond that the two of them have- almost as strong as those mutts have with their imprinting down on the Quileute reservation. Alone we can deal with the two of them- but together? The bond has developed even quicker than Bella and Edward's did. They will be able to find enough strength to escape in each other. And you have them locked in the same room down there; they're probably spilling out their guts to each other now. You think that the bond was scary before they've been in isolation together?"_

_Aro smirked. "A mated pair's greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. Threaten on with the other and they'll do whatever you want them to."_

"_I don't think that it'll work that way brother..."_

Alice made a split second decision to try and move her vision somewhere else. I wanted to ask her what she was doing, then I saw where she moved and it all made sense.

She was watching Alec and his mate. The girl's throat was destroyed. I winced in synch with Alice. That must have really hurt. The question is why wasn't it healing?

The girl grabbed his hand and started to write with it.

_Tell me a story..._

We watched the entire conversation. I felt kind of bad; it's really rude to butt in on the story of someone's human life. But it was worth it.

"That's it..." Alice breathed softly. "Alec isn't with Aro willingly, he never has been. If we can get him and Arianna safely out of Volterra we'll win the war." All our family turned to look at her; you could have heard a pin drop at our table.

Naturally, the five minute bell chose that moment to ring; it was time to go back to class. "I'll keep searching guys," was all Alice said, "if I find anything worthwhile I'll give the signal and we'll all bail." Alice grinned, "Person with the most inventive way out of class wins."

We all grinned. Meet my family, first group of non-human killing vampires, the largest threat the Volturi have faced in centuries, second largest coven in the world... and all of us with serious issues that need therapy and an insanely competitive need to gamble. I love it.

We all went to our third classes. I was in math with my Bella, Emmett and Jasper were in gym (that's a disaster waiting to happen). Alice had art and Rosalie had family studies.

We were about halfway into the class when Alice gave the signal, she'd found something. I could practically feel every single member of my family freeze in anticipation. I was torn between horror and anticipation, insane vampires having a competition around helpless humans... never works.

Bella looked at me, her eyebrow raised. She took her shield down and began to think at me. _I have an idea Edward... I'll need your help though, but when we win we can share the glory._ She winked at me and outlined her plan in her head. It was brilliant; I can't wait to see the look on the teacher's face.

Her eyes grew large and glazed, her pupils dilated slightly, it was a more dramatic version of Alice's 'I see something you don't see look'. It made her look more than slightly insane. She looked around the classroom slowly and gave a twisted little giggle, "I see dead people..."

The teacher's jaw dropped to the floor. "Miss. Swan, Are you feeling okay?"

Her eyes widened. "Edward... the dead person is trying to talk to me. He's really scary."

I stood up. "I'm sorry sir... she must have forgotten to take her medicine this morning. Can I have permission to take her home?"

The teacher nodded, still looking stunned. "O-of c-course, I hope she-she feels b-b-better soon." I smiled apologetically before I grabbed Bella and walked out of the room.

We got out of hearing range and she started laughing. "That was awesome Edward; we need to do that more often!" I nodded agreeing.

**Rosalie POV**

The teacher stood up against the blackboard, we were talking about abortion. This gives me a few ideas. Mrs. Copper turned to look at me, I made myself look queasy, putting my hand over my stomach. "Rosalie, are you feeling okay?"

I shook my head, breaking down and pretending to sob. She looked startled. "Why don't we go talk in the hall?" She was a very maternal woman. We walked out to the hall. "Now, is there something you want to talk to me about?"

I made myself start sobbing a little harder, "I... I think I might be pregnant. We're still waiting for the official results to come in, I'm just worried about what Carlisle and Esme will think, I know they'll support me, but I'm just so afraid I'll disappoint them, I look up to them so much... They've been so kind to me."

She sighed softly, "Do you know who the father is?"

"Emmett is the only person I've had... done it with, it must be him. I really don't know what I'm going to do?"

"I think you should tell your parents about it, Rosalie. I'm sure they'll be able to help you."

I sniffed, trying to make myself as pathetic as I could. "Could I- could I maybe go talk to them now? I don't want to miss class, but I just can't concentrate."

Mrs. Copper nodded sympathetically, "Of course you can dear. Remember, I'm always here to talk to if you want someone to vent to."

"I will. Thank you." She nodded and went back into the room, I turned and walked down the hall, grinning. I felt a little bit bad about tricking her, she seemed very nice, but not too bad.

**Emmett POV**

I looked around the gym, trying to figure out what to do. I saw a spider on the wall. Perfect. "Jasper," I hissed, too fast for the humans to hear, "I'm going to start something, use your gift to add to the effect."

I gave out a high pitched, girly scream. "Oh my... it's the giant man eating spider!" I pointed at the tiny spider on the wall. Jasper sent huge waves of terror around the room, soon all the humans were running and screaming, eventually we all ended up with our backs pressed against the opposite wall.

Here's to causing mass terror and confusion.

Jasper walked over to the teacher, "Ummm, I'm sorry sir, my brother is affected by an unfortunate mental disability. It's normally best after he's had one of his fits to take him home and give him some peace and quiet."

I added to the dramatic effect by curling up in the fetal position and rocking back and forth quickly. My classmates all started to back away slowly. The coach nodded quickly, "Please do. I don't want any more of this."

We walked out of the classroom. Beat that, guys.

**Alice POV**

I decided to wait until all of my family was out of class, I didn't want to spoil their fun after all. I snuck into the washroom; I had five minutes to make a call before someone else came in. I pulled out my cell phone.

9-1-1, who else do you call to make a bomb threat after all?

"Hello, nine-one-one, what is your emergency."

Show time. "I am calling to tell you that I've hidden a bomb in the high school, I hated my days here and want nothing more to destroy it." I made my voice deep and masculine;" If you don't get everyone out of the school in ten minutes they will die." I crushed the phone in my hand and went back to class.

It took two minutes and twenty three seconds for the very terrified small town police to call the school and evacuate it then we were all sent home.

My siblings looked around at the chaos. "So who had the bomb threat idea?" was all Bella said.

Rosalie laughed, "How do we know it was one of us, for all we know some creep may have actually put a bomb in the school." We all threw her rather pointed looks. "Okay so it probably was one of us." She muttered.

I held up my hand. "Guilty, what did everyone else do?"

"I started having a mental breakdown in class. I pretended I could see dead people."

"We made the class think there was a man eating spider on the wall."

"I pretended that Emmett knocked me up."

We all sat there for a few seconds, and then we started laughing helplessly. "Let's go home guys."

Our living room was filled with vampires, the entire alliance was there, the same people that came for the Renesmee incident last time. The only difference was that Vladimir, Stefan, Amun and Kebi were absent, and that Alistair, Charles and Makenna had joined us after they noticed that you were going to have to choose sides for this war. The Volturi were recruiting entire covens.

"What are you guys doing home?" was all Carlisle said.

Rosalie broke down and started dry sobbing, "I think I might be pregnant." Carlisle rubbed his face.

"Okay, so Rose pretended to be pregnant to get out of school, compared to some of the messes you guys get into that's not that bad."

"I see dead people now." That brought a laugh from the collective dead people in the room.

"Faking a psychotic breakdown, Bella I thought you were more mature than that. I'm going to have to forge you some papers." If Bella was still human she would have been bright red.

Emmett looked up, "Jasper and I made the gym class think there was a man eating spider on the wall."

The vampires in the room started laughing even harder. Carlisle didn't even say anything, he just shot them the_ look_. He turned to look at Alice, who was inspecting her shoes. "Alice, if you think I'm going to ignore you... what did you do?"

"It's not that bad Carlisle, really. And it got all the other humans out of school too." Carlisle muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like _we need therapy_. Carlisle just kept looking at her. "I may have called a bomb threat for the school." She muttered quickly. "But I crushed the phone so they can't track it to us. I really do have something important to tell you."

You could probably have heard the vampires laughing from miles away.

"Since you have something that's so _important_, why don't you share?"

"I figured out what's going on in Volterra." All the vampires in the room fell silent. Nothing ruins a good mood better than the Volturi. "Aro's lust for power finally got the better of him; he turned an insanely powerful girl, Arianna. And she hates his guts."

The mood in the room lightened considerably when I said that. "And I figured out why Alec is so important, along with Ari."

"Why?" asked Maggie.

"He's never been with Aro willingly. Aro's been blackmailing him into it." If the room was quiet before, that was nothing compared to now. No one was even breathing.

"I know you're telling the truth," started Maggie, "but... Alice, its Alec. No one's ever heard of him rebelling against Aro. He's been the guard member that everyone is so afraid of."

"Do you honestly think that if anyone found out that Alec isn't actually willing to be a member of the guard that Aro will let them stay alive for long? Aro really likes his white hat and Alec's gift is one of the scariest he's ever had in his guard."

Zafrina looked at Elaezar. "What did you notice when you were working with Aro? How did Alec behave?"

"Honestly... I never saw that much of him. I saw him during feeding time and during missions, but that's about it. We all assumed that it was because he had a superiority complex. He and Aro spent pretty much all their time having glaring contests when they thought no one was looking. Looking back I don't know how I noticed that something was happening. He disappeared for about three years. It was right before I left, close to a hundred years ago. Aro was agitated; Demetri and Afton were almost always out of the castle. Eventually Alec reappeared. He was only at dinner about once a month, and he looked bad. Like someone was torturing him. I assumed that the mission he went on went badly and he was having a bit of a comeuppance."

Elaezar turned to Alice, "He tried to run away didn't he?"

Alice nodded, "Yes, it was the third time he ever tried to. Aro started world war two as his punishment."

"Why doesn't he just use his gift to escape? He's very powerful after all."

Edward was able to answer this one. "Think of the other gifts in the castle, Afton's in particular. Every time Alec would try to use his gift one of them would be able counter him immediately. There's only so much one type of gift can do."

Bella asked the next question. "What was he thinking about so hard when we were trying to get them not to kill Nessie?"

"He was trying to figure out a way to make it look like your shield could stop his gift. He wasn't sure whether his gift was physical or mental. He didn't want anyone knowing he could incapacitate us all."

"Why?"

"Think about it, what would Aro have done if he knew that he could, without a doubt, win the fight?"

"He'd kill us all."

"Exactly, and Alec didn't want us to die. He knew that both choices of what would happen would be good if the Volturi could lose the fight. Either we win and Aro isn't hurting people anymore or Aro is forced to back down, which seriously screws with his power base."

Carlisle looked around. "Let's have a vote. Either we help the two of them, or we don't."

We went in a circle around the room. The Irish coven got the first vote. "I think we'd be willing to help them," began Siobhan, "as long as Maggie gets a chance to talk to them first. If it turns out they're lying, we're going to kill them."

Zafrina looked at her sisters; they had one of those moments of silent communication. "We have no problem helping children. It's not their fault Aro is a twisted bastard." She said.

Benjamin and Tia looked at each other. "Ditto on what Zafrina said, he's tried to do the same thing to us, so I can sympathize."

Alistair went next, "Anything that can help our chances." Charles and Makenna agreed with him, as did Mary, Peter and Charlotte.

Tanya sighed, "I know that Elaezar trusts him, and that he did not personally have a hand in the death of my sisters and mother. It'll just take time for me to trust him I guess. But we'll vote yes."

"The pack will go with whatever Carlisle does. We'll probably keep our distance until we know we can trust him though."

Carlisle looked back at us. "What do you think guys, Alice has seen that they'll join our family. Do we want more people in our family?"

Emmett gave a booming laugh. "Awesome, now I'll have baby siblings too."

Carlisle smiled. "As long as everyone's okay with it we'll vote yes."

Tia started laughing "I cannot believe how everyone said yes. I was expecting Jasper to have to calm down at least one person who went into a fit of boiling rage over how we're consorting with the enemy."

"Oh, there most certainly would have been if Vladimir and Stefan were still with us," snorted Alice.

"But they're not here are they?" Maggie gave an evil grin, "so we can do whatever we want."


	7. Chapter Six

**A/N: And now we're back in Volterra... well, for a little bit anyways. **

**Chapter 6- Dead Can Dance**

**Arianna POV**

We had been down here for about a day now; we could hear the clocks chiming in Volterra. It's about mid-day. We were talking softly about mundane things, favourite colours, things like that. Well, Alec was talking- I still had that little problem of a crushed throat. We both fell silent when we heard four pairs of footsteps coming down the hall. Alec gulped and I got a death grip on him. The only way of getting me to let go of him is to rip me off. I felt his arms tighten around me and knew that he was thinking the same thing I was.

The door swung open and light poured in. Aro stood outside with the little blond haired girl, Felix and Afton. "Felix, Sylvia, take Alec to his room. Afton and Felix bent down and pried us apart. Afton didn't even bother trying to use his gift on me. He just threw me over his shoulder like a sac of wheat.

We went up at least two different sets of stairs. Aro was leading us to a part of the castle I'd never been to before. Not surprising really, I haven't seen very much of it at all.

Afton carried me into a huge bathroom, it had at least four rooms in it, and each one had a shower and a bath. Is all this really necessary, I mean, vampires can't get dirty all that easily. You'd probably be able to take care of all the vampires in the castle with just one shower. Whatever, not my problem.

Afton laid me out flat on the counter top and Aro grabbed a spray-hose thing. I opened my mouth to start spouting off various rude comments that probably would have got me into a lot of trouble. Then I remembered my throat didn't work. Fuck you Aro. I levelled out several of my scariest death glares at him, being a newborn vampire with ruby red eyes, my death glares kick ass.

"I love the silence," Aro murmured softly to Afton, "I'd probably just leave her like this if I wasn't afraid of permanently damaging her throat and making her useless."

Afton started chuckling. "Do you have control yet?" asked Aro.

I felt Afton's dark gift flare up and overwhelm my mind, shoving me back into a corner and taking over. I could faintly hear them talking, it was like watching them through a wall of smoke. "She's mine master."

Aro nodded. "Excellent, make sure she doesn't move,"

"Of course master."

He set about to cleaning out my neck, it _hurt_. It hurt even more than getting it destroyed in the first place. Afton's gift held me pinned in place, like a butterfly trapped in a jar. And even worse, the cleaning took a half an hour.

Eventually though he was done, he dried it off and Afton released his control. I felt it starting to heal. It was very strange; it wasn't painful, just strange. My throat felt both cold and hot at the same time and it felt like the coolness was spreading.

Of course, the fact that my neck had healed brought on a new problem. I was very, very, _very_, thirsty. My hands flew up to my throat, wrapping themselves around it, trying to stop the burning, to smother the flames.

Aro sighed and took my hand; I was too thirsty to realize that he was reading my mind. Aro smiled softly, "Let's go get you something to drink child."

He walked out of the room and I followed, we went into a room filled with refrigerators. "We have real dinners with fresh blood every week or so," said Aro, "but you're a newborn so you'll need more than that." He opened out the door and pulled out a bag of blood. Yeah, I know, I know, it's weird, but you really can't truly understand the need to drink blood unless you're a vampire.

Aro passed the bag to me, along with a straw. Yup, I'm a civilized vampire; I drink my human blood with a straw. I poked it in and started to slurp it up. It was so good. It reminded me of drinking one of those cool-aid drinks actually. Before I knew it, the blood was gone. I looked at the fridge and looked at Aro, who was talking to Afton. "Go ahead," he nodded.

I went and got more blood.

Eventually my thirst was sated (fourteen bags of blood later...) I waited patiently for them to finish talking, you see, Alec had given me a few tips about how to deal with Aro. Rules #1- _don't challenge his authority, if you have a problem keep it to yourself_. Rule #2-_Be polite, it doesn't cost you anything, I can guarantee being rude will ._And my personal favourite, _pretend to like him, and he'll pretend to like you. Let everyone know you want to kill him and he'll let everyone know he wants to kill you to. Probably by killing you, this is never fun._

Sounds simple enough right? No, not really, by nature if I don't like someone they will find out about it. And that goes against rule number three, which will probably get me killed. Any of them could get me killed actually, if I prove to be completely untameable Aro will kill me. Damn. My life sucks.

"Do you have something you'd like to say Arianna?" Oh yeah, I was about to start off on the insults, I mean how many chances like that do you get. Then I remembered Alec's rule number two.

See, Alec saves my ass even when he's not here to physically tell me to shut up. So I switched to something else. "Thank you."

Aro nodded approvingly, "Now," he said carefully, "Alec has obviously had some kind of good influence on you, so I'll let you stay with him. Misbehave though and I'll end up splitting you two up." His voice got even lower, "Do something really bad and I'll end up hurting him. Neither of us would want that, would we?"

"Of course not sir." I shook my head back and forth. I may be using manners, but if he thinks I'm going to call him _master_, like everyone else has, he's gone insane. Or more insane, I think he's already slipped off the deep end.

He lost the serious look, "You really did quite a nice job drinking that blood by the way," he said in an offhand manner. "Most newborns would have spilled it all over the place." Apparently sucking blood through a straw requires finess?

Alec's rules work like magic... all I have to do is keep it to myself that I want to kill Aro slowly and painfully and he'll return the favour by not killing me slowly and painfully. Wonderful, hopefully I'll be able to last a month now before I do something so stupid that Aro has to kill me.

I heard a huge booming noise coming from the direction of the throne rooms. Aro looked over in his shoulder at that general direction. "Afton, take Ari back to Alec's room. I'll have to go deal with that." He gestured to the throne room where I could hear noises coming from. As he walked past Afton he murmured something so quiet I could only make out three words, even with vampire hearing. _Watch... Acting... Sneaky. _Damn, all that work acting and Aro still doesn't trust me. Why am I not surprised?

Afton opened the door and bowed mockingly at me. Yeah, he can pretend to be polite all he wants, I know he can rip my head off with one hand. "Ladies first," he murmured.

I smiled innocently at him, "Go ahead then, I wouldn't want to be rude." He snorted.

"Touché" he pushed me through the door. "You're still going first, there's no way I'm turning my back to you."

"Awww... I'm just an innocent child. No need to be afraid."

He laughed outright this time, "Sure, and I'm Tinkerbell."

I opened my mouth to respond- he cut me off before I could say anything.

He sighed. "As fun as this has been, I've got stuff to do. Walk." I froze, "I'm dead serious Arianna, walk or I'll carry you." Not ever going to happen again, I've been manhandled more in the past three days than I have in my entire life. I started walking. Alec's room was only five doors down from the washroom. I noticed that his door was thicker than mine and had two locks. Looks like someone has developed a bit of a reputation.

Afton opened the door; Alec was sitting on the bed waiting. "Goodbye children, behave so I don't have to drag you down to the dungeon again." The door closed and his footsteps receded down the hall. I went and hopped up on the bed beside Alec.

He let out a huge breath of air. "Nice to see that you're still alive, although there were some times when you were talking to Afton..."

I frowned, "I never felt in danger in that conversation, I mean, I don't trust Afton at all, and I know that if he lost his temper he'd kill me easily, but I never felt like it was going to happen. Normally anger has to build up enough for someone to lose their temper. That and we all know Afton wouldn't need to hurt me, he could just drag me down the hall, killing me would probably make Aro angry too."

Alec sighed again, totally exasperated. "With a human, or many of the vampires in this castle you'd have been able to have a conversation like that and have them laugh it off, at worst they might become mildly insulted." He paused, "Afton is neither a human nor one of those vampires. He was the very first guard member Aro ever selected, and he has a huge temper. He is more of a friend to Aro than most people, albeit it's a twisted friendship, but if Afton destroyed you Aro would be disappointed in him, but for the most part he'd just let it slide. Afton looks at you like a small child because to him you are one to him; he's over two thousand years old and can flatten your mind easily and that's what saved your ass."

"I'm sorry," that was the closest thing to a lecture that I've ever gotten from Alec.

He smiled crookedly, "It's all right love, I should have warned you." And then everything was okay again.

"Any other people who I don't want to piss off?"

"Trying not to provoke anyone would probably be best." I raised my eyebrow at him, "but knowing you that's not possible. Avoid any of the ancients, the wives are probably the least dangerous, Marcus will probably just ignore you. But you know how Aro is and if anything Caius is even worse. Afton obviously, and his mate Chelsea because if Afton hears you've been bugging her it will get very bad. And Jane, you definitely want to avoid Jane at all costs. I've seen how the two of you behave around each other."

"I can avoid eight people. Hopefully." I smiled.

"Yeah, I hope you can too. It would really suck if someone killed you."

"Your rules worked great."

"Really," he teased, "I kind of thought that they would. What happened?"

"Nothing really, but that's what's so great. Even after I could talk again I managed to stay in control enough of myself so that Aro didn't have a reason to hurt me- I swear, it's like he and Jane were trying to piss me off on purpose. I used to be so impulsive I'd swear my teachers were secretly trying to find out if I had ADHD."

"That's good," he said dryly. "And Aro and Jane _were_ trying to piss you off. They wanted to see how much control you have."

I looked around the room. I saw a bunch of thin strips of metal sitting on a table, they were obviously meant to be used for a craft project... but... I think that we have a way out.

"Alec, tell me another story."

"What one do you want?"

"One with a happy ending." I reached over and grabbed a pen and paper, while he began to talk. He was telling me an old fairy tale. It sounded beautiful, I'd have to get him to tell me it again when I wasn't planning an escape.

I began to write on the paper.

_Don't comment on the paper, the story is to cover up what we're doing._

He nodded, but kept talking.

_I think I can get us out of here if we can get through the castle safely._

_I can get us out if you can get us out of the room, we can sneak into Felix's room and go out his window. But how do you plan on getting us out the door? There's no way to break it down without the whole castle hearing._

_I can pick the locks._

_What?_

_Are you seriously telling me that you're over one thousand years old and you've never learned how to pick a lock?_

_Umm... Yeah I most definitely am._

_Fail. Watch, but keep talking._

I walked over as quietly as I could, and since I'm a vampire that means totally silent. I grabbed the slivers of metal that looked like they could fit the locks. I was lucky, the door had two door knobs on it, my guess is that they put the room together quickly, using what locks they could find, and since Alec didn't know how to pick locks Aro had never bothered getting someone to fix it.

I found the sliver of metal that would best fit to work and started picking the lock. Alec watched curiously, he really didn't know how to pick a lock. I would have started laughing if my position wouldn't have given away something was up. I gave the pick one final twist and the lock fell into place. Alec's mouth fell open. I started working on the second one.

I finished the last one right before Alec finished the story. It really was a beautiful story. _"And Sephrenia was both sorrowed and rejoiced, for though her children would be doomed for millennia to walk the earth, she knew that in time the children born of fire and smoke would come to their rescue and return to them their dark wings and they would be free to soar amongst the stars once more."_

"You call that a happy ending?"

"It is the best story of how vampires have come to be. Everything in it has proved to be true so far, so there really isn't an ending, that's just the beginning of our story."

"Oh... cool." I gestured for him to follow me and we slipped into the hallway.

Alec held a finger up to his lips and I nodded. I can shut up for a while. He pressed his ear up against the door. No sound came from within the room. Alec slid the door open and we crept into the room. It was empty. I walked over to the window, we were on the second floor, and a forest lay behind the castle.

I didn't hesitate this time; I pushed myself as far away from the wall as I could. I felt Alec jump behind me. Soaring through the air it felt like we were flying. Flying to freedom.

It felt great.

We hit the ground and started running, Alec soon over took me, and his legs go so much faster than mine do. I concentrated on pushing on my legs, trying to go faster using my new strength. It worked. You haven't truly run until you've been turned into a vampire. It's amazing, the speed, and the clarity. It's like your senses are on fire.

We ran until we hit the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean. Alec looked at me "Where do you want to go love? I'd recommend not going south, there are vampire wars going on down there right now. I'd also recommend staying away from the general area of Forks and La Push. The Cullens have probably moved on by now so the entire area will be inhabited only by shape shifters, and they kill any red eyed vampire that comes onto their land."

"Alec, would you like to go vegetarian? I don't want to kill anyone, and I know you're sick of all the killing. Why don't we just head up to northern Canada and live there. Lots of big game will be there if we go into the area covered by the Shield, and there's almost no people living there because of the bad climate."

Alec beamed at me. "Nothing would make me happier. How about we come out of the water somewhere around Newfoundland, and head north from there?"

I started giggling, he looked at me. "What?"

It wasn't actually all that funny, but I was feeling so light hearted I just had to laugh about something. "Sorry... you're just so civilised... I have a hard time imagining you taking on a grizzly."

He grinned at me, caught up in my mood. When you've been stuck in hell anywhere else can look like heaven. "I can probably handle a bear."

I looked around. "We must look like freaks- standing on a cliff in the middle of the night wearing cloaks."

Alec's eyes got really wide. "Now that you've reminded me that I'm wearing it... I've discovered that it _really _pisses Aro off when you do things like this." He yanked his cloak off and began ripping it to shreds. A good idea, a very good idea. I grabbed mine and began stomping it into the mud until it looked closer to brown than gray.

"Damn, that felt really good!" I cheered. Alec looked at the water, "Time to go love, we don't want Demetri and co. to catch up with us." I looked at the water.

"Turn around for five seconds Alec." I pulled my pants off and laid them flat in the ground, ripping off the legs so I had a lovely pair of short shorts. I took of my sweater and threw it into the pile. Eventually all I was wearing were the short shorts and my baby-tee that said "Save trees, do less homework." I had taken off my shoes and socks as well.

Alec turned around. "I like the new outfit a lot." was all he said. I made a nice pile of fabric. Alec grinned. "One second." He pulled off his sweater too, he wasn't wearing a t-shirt.

"Oh, I really like that new outfit." He laughed.

I had one of the lock picks I had used in my pocket, along with the paper and pen we wrote with. I made a little flag that said, "Just in case Demetri goes senile- he's over a thousand years old after all- here's a hint Tinkerbell." And then I stuck it in the pile.

"I thought you said you got over your impulsive issue."

"That wasn't impulsive," I defended, "Demetri isn't on the list of people not to annoy."

"Afton is, don't think I don't know who the Tinkerbell is aimed at."

"You want to go fast right?" I asked.

"Yes..." He seemed kind of suspicious.

"People always go faster if they have insanely angry people chasing them."

He sighed. "Let's go." And then he dove into the water.


	8. Chapter Seven

**A/N: Well, here's chapter Seven. Review and enjoy [=**

**Chapter Seven- Sun and Shadow**

**Arianna POV**

Swimming when you don't have to breathe is probably the most abnormal thing on the planet. When you're a human there is always that faint feeling of pressure coming from your chest if you're not breathing, that feeling that says, 'Hey, this isn't right'. But when you're a vampire there is no feeling of pressure, I could stop breathing for a year and never notice anything wrong.

The water was a dark blanket around me. For a human it would have been freezing cold, but for me it was fine. I could feel even the most indistinct temperature change on my skin, but nothing felt _cold _to me. I pulled myself down deeper into the glittering darkness. I could see Alec up ahead of me, I swam to catch up.

We glided through the water, every pull that we took with our arms, or every kick we took with our feet sent us flying forward. It was so easy, we could cross the whole ocean like this- we would cross the ocean like this.

We swam through underwater canyons and caves that no human had ever been through before, most of them were fairly plain, but the dark ocean made everything beautiful.

During the day the sunlight reflected down through the water, it doesn't penetrate very far, only a few meters and then we would be back into the glittering darkness. The sunlight created patterns as the water; you could see each shaft of sunlight reflecting from the surface.

Fish were avoiding us, not surprising really. I agree with them- vampires are scary.

It took us two days to get to the shoreline of Newfoundland, we climbed out of the water dripping wet and laughing. Hopefully there were no humans watching, it would look really odd to have two people climb out of the freezing cold water. Aro already wants to kill us, let's not give him another reason to by exposing our race.

Alec froze and started sniffing the air. "Ari, do you smell that?"

I took a deep breath. I could smell a lot of different scents. They all smelled like vampire, one of them was even floral smelling somehow... strange. "Most definitely. Do you recognize the scent?"

"It's familiar, but I must have been paying attention to something else when I met whoever it is, because I don't know exactly who it belongs-" He froze.

"I take it you remembered who it is?"

"Cullens, along with the entire alliance. That's why there are so many different scents."

"Could we maybe sneak around the coastline and avoid their territory?" I suggested.

"That would probably be a good idea. They'll probably attack on sight if they see us." I heard a footstep a few meters behind me and spun around.

There were eight vampires standing there. All of them had golden eyes and four of them were gifted. There was a tall blonde that was absolutely stunning, the kind of beauty that you'd never forget, there was a huge muscular man holding her hand that reminded me of Felix a lot, except his eyes were playful, while Felix's were just plain dangerous. The man standing at the front who was obviously the leader absolutely oozed calmness, how does he do that? He's not gifted... There was a tiny woman holding his hand, she appeared to be the physically oldest of the group, although they were all very close in age. Behind them there was a short pixie-like vampire that glowed a stunning emerald green. Her mate was a tall blonde man that glowed a light, calming brown. The final pair was a brown haired couple, the man glowed a sky blue and the woman glowed a light baby pink. The last woman's gift wasn't so much glowing as she was surrounded by a shield of light. I could see traces of her gift around the rest of her family.

Alec had previously told me about the Cullens, I started matching up names and faces.

The short pixie-like one- Alice- grinned at Alec and started talking. "That's not a nice thing to say Alec," she teased. "Does it look like we want to kill you."

He chuckled in response, "It certainly did last time we met, not that I don't understand why, the circumstances were quite nasty."

She shrugged, "I blame Aro."

"We definitely agree on that." He frowned, "how did you find out I didn't like Aro though?"

Alice smiled and tapped her forehead, "Seeing the future is a useful tool."

Edward smirked, "I think we should go up to the house guys, there are humans coming."

Carlisle looked at us, "You'd be welcome to come with us. We would love to have you. You could also just cut straight through our territory, it's up to you."

Alec and I looked at each other; he shrugged at me, as if he was saying 'why not?' I looked at Carlisle, "We'd love too, if it's not a problem. We don't want to impose."

Esme beamed at us, "It's not a problem at all dear." She seems nice. I smelled the humans coming from the left. I stopped breathing and took a few steps back, trying my hardest not to give in to the fire, not to douse it with the life of another. _Don't kill the humans... don't kill the humans... do not kill the humans._

Alec grabbed my hand and I tried to focus on him. Don't look at the humans Ari, look at Alec...

Emmett slid in between the humans and me. I didn't have any air to talk with... but there is a mind-reader here._ Edward, if you don't mind, tell Emmett I said thanks._ Edward nodded. "She says thank you Em."

Emmett grinned at me, "Awww, it's no problem; you're just like my own baby sister." Alice sent him a look. I must have missed something. Oh well, I doubt that it's that important.

Jasper turned to everyone. "Let's go home guys. Everyone else is probably starting to worry."

We turned and walked, at human speed, back into the woods. When we were out of the line of sight of the humans we started running. Eventually we could see a huge house through the trees. It was an old Victorian home, with a few changes I'm guessing. The entire south wall was made of clear glass, and there was a new looking garage as well.

Emmett was the first one there. He pulled the door open and gave a huge dramatic bow, "Ladies first." I seem to be getting the strangest sense of déjà vu.

Why not test the waters? If it goes badly Alec and I could always run, and Emmet seems a lot nicer than Afton. I doubt he'll try to kill me "Go ahead then Emmett, I wouldn't want to be rude." There was a moment of dead silence, and I started going _oh shit_ in my head and then all the Cullens started laughing. All of them, I could hear more laughter coming from the house. Even Alec was laughing... though his was more relieved than anything.

Alec is probably thinking. 'Thank god we're with a group of people that will laugh, as opposed to trying to kill someone'

Emmett gave another booming laugh, "Go ahead Rose, we all know you're a lovely lady." Rosalie waltzed through the door, grabbing Emmett's hand as she went.

We made it into the house without further mishap. We all piled into a room that held twenty or so vampires in it. That's a lot of vampires.

Carlisle began to introduce us, "I'm sure you all know Alec," there were a couple of chuckles from around the room. I'm surprised none of them have tried to kill him yet. They didn't exactly see him under good circumstances last time. "And this is Arianna."

"Ari," I corrected, a bunch of hellos sprang from around the room and Alec and I both muttered hello in response. Awkward...

"You two come with me," Alice sang. "You are in serious need of clothes. I have some that will fit you upstairs."

We followed her up the stairs into a spare room. How big is this house? I could see a door that led to yet another staircase. Three stories plus basement, a bigger house than I had ever seen. I grabbed Alec's hand; I was feeling just a bit overwhelmed.

Alice looked into a closet. "Here Alec," she tossed him a button-down T-shirt that was blue, and a pair of black dress pants. "I tried not to do anything too colourful, since you haven't worn anything but black in centuries." She shot him a look that said what she thought of that.

Alec held up his hands. "Not my choice, remember? Aro picks the capes, not us."

Alice nodded, "I loved what you two did with your capes by the way. Except both Demetri and Afton want to kill you now."

"They already did." I snorted. Alice pulled out a white sundress.

"Go get dressed you two. Alec, use the washroom down the hall if you want to, and then come back here. Ari, come with me, I need to do your hair."

I looked at Alec, "Help me." I mouthed.

He just laughed. Some mate he is. "Alice, try not to annoy my mate, I'm supposed to kill whoever hurts her, and you seem nice."

Alice just grinned even more. "You know, Edward said the same thing to me when I met Bella. You'll thank me after I'm done. They always do."

"Alice, stop torturing the children!" I heard Bella yell from down stairs.

"Well, most of them do anyways..." Alice muttered under her breath. Alec and I started laughing. "Go get dressed," she huffed at Alec. "You come with me," she said turning to me.

We walked across the room into the washroom. I tried to get a glimpse of myself in the mirror, but Alice jumped in front of me. "Don't even think about it. I know you haven't seen yourself since you changed. I'm not sure how you managed that, but you haven't seen yourself. Don't think I'm going to let you look until I've fixed your hair and got you into a dress. I made Bella do the same thing."

I spun around so my back was to the mirror. I can wait. Alice tossed me the dress. "Get into that while I get the stuff out." I heard Alice start pulling different things out from the cabinet when I pulled the dress on.

"No hairspray Alice, the stuff smells like crap." She shot me a glare that I could feel burn into my back. "Or you can put whatever you want in..." The smugness started rolling off of her.

Alice sat me in a chair so that my back was still turned to the mirror and began to work. I heard Alec knock on the door. "Can I come in?"

"Nope!" Alice sang.

"Yes! You can come in Alec. Ignore Alice, please."

"Go, Ari!" I heard Emmett yell from down stairs. "You take on that big scary pixie vampire!"

"I guess you can come in Alec, just don't tell her how she looks."

"I don't even need to look at her to do that," he said before he opened the door, "I know she's beautiful, she always is and always will be."

He walked through the door. "Done!" cheered Alice. "Take a look."

The minute she said that we had a group of vampires at the door looking in. "We want to see how she reacts," explained Zafrina.

I turned and looked in the mirror. I gasped and touched my face. The beautiful girl in the mirror did the same movement. I was slimmer, more muscular. Even the bone structure of my face was finer, more delicate. My lips were fuller and redder, and my skin had become paler, and there wasn't a mark on it. There was a certain way I looked, this kind of otherworldly beauty.

And then there were my eyes. They were a bright blood red, if my body didn't scream 'not human' my eyes definitely did. Nothing looked the same. Everything except my hair had changed. My hair was still so bright it looked like it was on fire, I guess it's because hair is dead cells.

Alec walked over. "What do you think love?" He wrapped his arm around me and I leaned towards him.

"I look so different. It's overwhelming. I've changed so much."

He looked at me gravely, "You're still the same person Ari, nothing has changed who you are, just what you look like."

I thought about that. It was kind of true, I had changed, but my core features were still there. Alec was right, I was still _me._

I nodded, "You're right," you could hear the wonder in my voice.

"I normally am," he chuckled.

"Maybe he has a bit of a superiority complex after all," speculated Elaezar.

We both turned to look at him; he had a playful grin on his face. "No, despite what everyone thought, that wasn't my problem," laughed Alec.

Elaezar inclined his head, smiling slightly. "I know that now."

Everyone filed out of the room. Edward looked at us. "Carlisle and I are about to go hunting. Do you want to come?"

The minute he said the word _hunt_, my throat flared up again and I felt like I had an inferno in there again. I nodded eagerly and Edward chuckled. "Let's go then." We walked out the door.

Edward and Carlisle started running north towards where Alec and I were originally headed. We ran for about ten minutes at a speed that, although it was more leisurely then when we were fleeing Volterra, still made you feel like you were flying. I started grinning.

Eventually Carlisle stopped and looked at me. "What do you smell Ari?" I took a deep breath through my nose. A musky odour hit us, it was strong and didn't smell all that appetizing, but it still made my throat burst into flames.

"Some kind of animal. It doesn't smell very good." I said, wrinkling my nose.

"That would be deer." Said Carlisle, "The carnivores always smell better than the herbivores, but the herbivores are easier to find."

"Now what?"

"Go with your instincts," said Alec. "Just take another deep breath and let go."

I did what he told me to and felt myself fly forwards. I leapt out into a clearing and jumped for the nearest deer without even thinking about it. My teeth reached its neck and cut through it like a knife through butter would. The warm blood flowed down my throat soothing the burning of my throat and putting out the fire. It took one more deer to mute the fire so it was only the barest echo of what it was before the hunt.

Alec was already done; it had only taken him two deer as well. His eyes had already turned to the bright gold of the Cullens, and he didn't have a speck of dirt on his clothing. I sighed enviously and sat down beside him, curling up with my head on his shoulder. "Why the big sigh, love?"

"Your clothing is clean and your eyes are gold. My clothing is dirty and my eyes are still bright red."

"When you get older you eyes will turn gold too, and staying clean when you're hunting just takes practice." He replied. "You're doing amazing."

Edward laughed, "You definitely look better than Bella did after the first time she went for a hunt. Her dress had claw marks in it and her hair was full of leaves, not to mention she was covered in dirt and blood. She decided to wrestle with a lion the first time."

I laughed to. Carlisle walked over and joined us, "if you guys are done we should probably get home, the news starts soon and I'd like to watch it."

Yep, the normal pastimes for a vampire, killing stuff, fighting, and watching the news. We all followed Carlisle back to the house. Most of the vampires had spread out so that they weren't all crammed into a room anymore. I could hear Alice upstairs talking to the Amazons. I could also hear-I really didn't want to hear- Kate and Garrett off into the room to my right.

Take a wild guess what they're doing.

Tanya and Siobhan were having a playful fight over who was going to get the remote for the T.V. next.

"I really want to watch Wife Swap." Argued Tanya.

"And I really want to watch Survivor." Siobhan shot back, "we can't all have what we want."

Carlisle walked over to the remote grinning. "And since it's my house," he began, "I say we're watching the news."

Tanya and Siobhan looked at each other and shrugged. "Why not? We were more or less fighting over the remote for something to do anyway."

Carlisle flicked it over to the news channel; we went and sat down with our backs leaning up against the front of the couch. Not because we had to sit down, but because that's where we can get the best view.

It started off with some pretty boring stuff, well... not boring, just unimportant to our lives. There was a fall hurricane going into Florida, and a couple of tornados went through Toronto, a serial killer is loose in Washington DC. The usual disasters that make you wonder why the reporter even bothered saying it's a _good _evening.

The next event got a totally different reaction from the people in the room. The reporter began "And police are still searching for whoever made a bomb threat call in a tiny community in Newfoundland." The entire group started laughing.

"I'm obviously missing something..." muttered Alec.

"Same here..."

Edward eventually took pity on us and told us what was so funny. "We had a contest to see who could cause the biggest bang to get out of school. That was Alice's idea, her idea wasn't the funniest, but it had the biggest impact." He looked wryly at the screen, "Bella and Emmett both pretended to have some form of schizophrenia. And Rosalie pretended to be pregnant."

"Alice would do something like that," Alec chuckled.

The next news segment was entirely not-funny, and entirely not-boring. There was a missing child in Ontario, she'd been missing for a couple of weeks now, police weren't sure where she went and the entire community was searching for her. They suspected she was dead, but nobody was entirely sure.

Oh yeah... one other tiny unimportant detail. You know that girl, well... guess what? I know her too.

It just happens that I'm the missing child.

Yeah, seeing your family sobbing on national T.V. can be a bit of a downer. It's even worse when they're sobbing about their lost child- who just happens to be you. I hid my face in Alec's shirt. All I could think was _make it stop- there's nothing I can do about it. I'm dead. If they know they'll die too._ I wanted more than anything to call them, to say that I'm okay. But of course, I can't do that- all thanks to the Volturi's damn laws. I mean really, first they kill me, then they torture me, and now I get to see my family suffering too? My mental sadness became anger; a deep burning rage that made me really wanted to kill someone. To make them pay for hurting innocent people that I cared about.

My mood swung violently between a wild depression and fury. I clung to Alec like a lifeline, I knew that if I let go of him I'd snap. So I just grabbed him.

I heard someone at the other side of the room get up and start calling for Jasper. People were leaving the room. Eventually it was only Alec, Carlisle, Edward and I in the room.

I felt Jasper walk in, huge waves of calm rolled off of him. I fell into a kind of trance, it isn't possible for vampires to sleep, but if I was a human I'd be out cold right now. I lifted my head up from Alec's shoulder. He had picked me up and put me in his lap sometime so I could hide my face on his shoulder.

I felt kind of out of it, I couldn't really concentrate on anything. Like I had just opened my eyes in the morning and I was still half asleep.

Carlisle was talking. "There's nothing you can do about it Ari, they're better off not knowing. They'll be upset about it now, but eventually they'll get over it and go on with their lives."

Alec went next, "He's right love, telling them would just put them in danger. There's nothing you can do except be happy. Do you think they want you to be miserable?"

"No," I sniffed.

"Then be happy."

I felt Jasper slowly start to ease off on the calmness so that I could feel again, and actually think over their words. They were right, I knew that they were, but it's hard to believe it when you get drowned in emotions.

"So... now what do you want to do?" asked Alec. Everyone stood up and went back to what they were doing; people came back into the room. It was as if nothing had happened, humans would have been throwing me sideways looks, but the vampires didn't bother.

Violently powerful mood swings are normal for newborns apparently.

"Tell me the story you told me in Volterra, not the actual story with all the pretty lines, I remember that, I just didn't really get what it was about. All the thee's and thou's were pretty, but I didn't understand what was happening at all" I smiled at him.

"The legend is from three thousand years ago Ari, I just told it the way I was told it" he teased, "You just need to learn how to speak English like a normal person."


	9. Chapter Eight

**A/N: Here you go, enjoy and review**

**Chapter Eight- Catching Fire**

**Arianna POV**

"Once, a very, very long time ago. There was an angel named Sephrenia, she wanted desperately to have children, but she was unable to. So she went a white witch and asked her to help her create children. The witch told her that creating life was not something she could do, witches could change things, kill things, save things, but they could not truly create life and not truly destroy life. Sephrenia was desperate, she wanted children so badly, and so she asked the witch if she could half-create life, make a compromise.

"The witch told her that this would be possible, but that Sephrenia herself would have to be the first to make the change. Maeve, the witch, said that her children would be frozen, trapped in a space between life and death and forced to live off the lifeblood of others until the prophecy was complete and the children earned true life.

"Sephrenia agreed quickly to the idea. The witch was still trying to talk her out of it. She warned that it would take millennia for the prophecy to be complete."

"What was the prophecy?" I asked eagerly.

"I'm getting there." He laughed. "The prophecy started off with the fact that she would create ten children, all mated pairs. Then that three of them would 'rise above the others'. It gets a lot longer, but since her three children that would rise to power are Aro, Marcus and Caius, and that's already happened I'm not going to go into detail. The interesting part is the part that hasn't happened yet. It gets really cryptic near the end. The witch told her that the prophecy would only be complete when the children of smoke and fire somehow managed to turn all the good vampires into angels and the bad ones into dust.

"Of course, the witch also told Sephrenia that the prophecy might never happen, because if the children die before the three great powers, then all will be lost and her children will travel down their destructive paths and destroy the world.

"But of course Sephrenia pointedly ignored that, she wanted children, not warnings. And thus she became the first vampire."

I heard Carlisle laugh. "That's about the most summarized version of the story I've ever heard." He teased, looking at Alec.

Alec just smiled, "She's already heard the full version, but she didn't get it. It happened over three thousand years ago after all."

"Is it really real?" I asked.

"Apparently," said Alec, "but for all we know Aro just made it up and followed its guidelines to make him seem more powerful."

"He would do that wouldn't he?"

"Oh yes."

At that point all the Cullen children walked down the stairs, they had gotten changed and were wearing new clothing. Rosalie looked around the room, "Are there any immortal adult-children in the room that would be willing to come to school with me?" she asked hopefully.

"Why would you need one of us to come to school with you?" asked Maggie, she was sketching on the other side of the room.

"Our teacher asked that if we had any younger siblings and/or cousins that would be willing to get a day off school could come in and help her mark projects that the class did. We get ten extra marks on the project, normally teachers just give us a hundred percent for our mid-terms, this could be a new record, and since Edward currently holds the record of a hundred-and-six percent, I want to beat him." She finished with a glare at Edward.

"Not going to happen." He laughed.

"Why does she want our help?" asked Maggie.

"Because the projects are games for kids, and since she's not a kid, she feels she needs help. So do you want to help?" she threw a hopeful look at Maggie.

"No," she snorted.

"You're going to need to give her an excuse Maggie," chuckled Edward, "or else she's just going to bug you about it until you go in."

Maggie frowned, "We're going hunting, _right_ Siobhan?"

"We actually were going to go." Was all Siobhan said.

"Alec?" Rosalie turned to Alec.

"I'm over a thousand years old Rosalie," he laughed. "Do you honestly think I act like a child? Then add on the fact that the only human contact I've had in centuries is at dinner time."

"Ari?"

"Are you insane?" I pointed at myself, "Two week old, newborn vampire, remember?"

"I'll acknowledge that point," she said, "but if you and Alec combine yourselves together you'd be able to come."

"I agree with that," said Maggie.

"Whose side are you on?"I shot at her.

"Mine. If she's taking you she's not taking me."

"Please guys," begged Rose.

"Now Rose," said Alice grinning, "stop picking on the children. They can't do that and you know it."

Rosalie laughed, "I do know, I was just hoping to beat Edward's record."

"You'll beat it in math anyway if you start doing the study contract she offered."

"By how much?" said Rosalie eagerly.

"You'll get one-hundred-and-twenty," replied Alice. Rosalie sent a smug smirk at Edward who rolled his eyes. The group walked out the door into the garage, you could hear the engines start up and them driving away.

The house seemed strangely silent without the insane teenage vampires in it.

Siobhan looked around, "We're going to go hunting now, Carlisle. Anyone else want to come?"

All the human-eating vampires ended up going hunting, no-one wanted to risk going anywhere alone, and they would have to go far enough away not to be noticed. The Cullens and the Tanya's family, plus Alec and I would be enough to hold the Volturi off if they attacked. So it was all good.

Better than sending people hunting in smaller groups and getting them killed off anyways.

Tanya was sitting in a corner of the room reading a book, Kate and Garrett had finished off their _activities _and were watching TV. Carmen and Esme were out back gardening. Carlisle and Elaezar were having some kind of debate about a book I've never heard of. Alec and I were looking around the room going 'now what do we do?'

I leaned back into his chest, staring at the ceiling. We were still curled up in a tiny ball, leaning against the couch.

Elaezar looked over at me. "Ari, what exactly is your gift? It seems to have so many different parts to it that I can't get a good reading."

Excellent, I'm not bored anymore. "I'm not entirely sure, we didn't really have all that much time for experimentation since Alec wasn't _technically_ allowed in my room and Aro came in during the middle of it and chased him out."

Carlisle looked over, "I'm shocked Aro turned down the opportunity to miss any experiments at all, he's insanely inquisitive." He said wryly.

Alec chuckled, "The amount of power manipulation going on in the room scared the living hell out of him. He figured it would be better to wait until after he knew how to control it before he went and strengthened the gift."

"So what can it do?" persisted Elaezar, "you've got me curious now."

"So far we know I can strengthen and weaken the gifts of others, and that I can imitate the gifts of others. And it's controlled by singing, which is a pain in the neck -literally- when someone realizes that all they have to do to stop you is crush your throat in."

"That someone wouldn't also happen to be Aro, would it?" snorted Carmen, walking into the room with Esme following.

"Why, now that you mention it, Aro was the one who demonstrated that wonderful knowledge."

"How did he stop it from healing?" asked Carlisle. Always a doctor.

"He poured some kind of liquid into it." I shuddered slightly.

He looked at Alec. "Do you know what it is?"

"No not really," he said thoughtfully, "I know there's no venom in it, it doesn't leave any scars. Apart from that though, I've no idea."

"Can you try using your gift again Ari?" asked Carlisle. "I'd like to see what we can find out."

"Aro's not the only one who's insanely curious," muttered Tanya, grinning.

"Yes, but Carlisle doesn't have the psychopathic tendencies." I choked out laughing. You really can't get the joke until you've met both of them.

Carlisle rolled his eyes, he was grinning slightly. "Hilarious guys. Let's see it Ari."

I didn't bother using words, I knew now that just my voice would do it. Using words would get me a lot of power, but just singing would be more controlled. I felt the power ebb and flow with my words, I looked at Kate "Can I demonstrate using your gift?"

She nodded "go ahead Ari,"

I lifted my voice to hit a pure note; it reverberated around the room, sending power with it. I collected it in one huge pool and sent the power out to her in one big stream. I held it there for a few seconds, filling Kate with power like a river running into a dry lake before I pulled it out and sent it crashing back towards me.

Trying to control all the power is like trying to control a river, it flows and twists, trying to break free and rush out. It would be impossible without some kind of tool, which is where my voice comes in.

Eventually I had it all back and I stopped using it. The room echoed slightly, like there was something missing. Kate let out a low whistle. "That was quite a surprise. It felt amazing, like I was floating in raw power."

Carlisle tapped his chin; you could tell he was thinking hard. "Ari, when you change your gift to someone else's colour how good are you at controlling the other person's gift? It can take a vampire ages to learn how to control their gift, and they can't have any distractions. You're already concentrating on something and the gifts are brand new to you."

"I'm not sure, we were about to try that before Aro decided to crash the party."

"Let's try it now then."

I tried to figure out whether I would need power more, or control more. It takes a lot of effort to change my gift, but then again, it's going to take a lot of control to copy someone else's gift. "Kate, what do you think when you use your gift?"

"Try to imagine a pocket of energy building up and then let it out at someone in one big shock. It helps if you make yourself angry too."

"Do you think it'll take more power, or more control?"

"You'll need however much it takes you to change your gift, plus a tiny concentrated amount to create the shock."

"I'll try going for control first, if that doesn't work I'll go for brute force."

I hit the same pure note that I hit before and felt the power start flying. I collected that power up and balled it within myself before changing how it felt to an electric blue. Kate's gift. I felt a different sort of power.

I could understand what Carlisle meant now, not only did I have to have perfect control over my voice (which luckily enough seemed natural for me) but I had to find a new way to control this new power. Her gift was so faint and light, the energy for it was barely there. If I didn't know what I was looking for I never would have found it.

I tried to gather that tiny energy up, but it was like trying to get a handful of water out of mist. Nearly impossible. I concentrated harder- changing my voice, so that although I still wasn't using words it soared through the octaves changing tone, but still remaining a beautiful unbroken sound.

My gift became harder to control then, but Kate's gift grew strong enough that I could actually do something with it. I did what she told me and it welled up into a concentrated, tiny ball of energy. Compared to the power of my gift flying around it was nothing, but in reality it was a lot more useful.

I turned towards Kate, holding out my hand. It was like tying to see through a wall of blinding light, difficult but not impossible. I was still concentrating all my energy to stop the pressure of my power from collapsing in on itself- the way a river would breach a dam- and keeping the spark of electricity from dying out that I didn't notice that I had a bit of an audience. There was a woman that I had never seen before standing in the corner of the room. She reminded me of Bella and Edward, she had a heartbeat, but there was something inhuman about her. This must be Renesmee. She stood up and went towards the door. I stopped looking at her and turned back to the task at hand.

I grabbed Kate's and and sent a tiny jolt of electricity through her. She gave me an amused glance, "Just shock me Ari. I felt that, but don't hold back." I reached out again and grabbed her hand sending an even stronger jolt of electricity through her. She jumped and her eyes rolled back slightly.

I lost control of the power and it slammed back into me. I stumbled backwards. Ouch... serious whiplash. "I'm sorry Kate. Really, really sor-"

"It's all right Ari, I told you to. It was fun, even when your eyes started glowing."

"My eyes started glowing?" I choked out. It's not like I don't have enough problems with them already, bright red, glowing eyes. Everyone in the room started nodding. Well, damn.

She laughed ruefully. "It took me ages to get it to be that powerful a shock, how did you manage it?"

I frowned, thinking. How exactly had I done it? To say that the amount of power I could have with so little effort scared me would have been the understatement of the century, it terrified me. Some people do okay with power, look at Carlisle, he's one of the most powerful vampires on the planet if you think about it, but you'd never tell by looking at him, and you could tell he didn't think of himself that way.

But then there were the people like Aro, who turned into absolute sadists after a while. What if I turned out like Aro and Jane- twisted beyond belief and caring nothing about anyone other than me? I shuddered slightly.

The others were waiting for me to answer; they were totally oblivious to that bit of soul searching. Alec looked like he had guessed something was bothering me, but he's my mate, I can tell when something is bothering him too. Not that I've seen very much bother him, he's very calm.

I opened my mouth, "I don't know very much yet, but from what I've seen there are two big parts to learning how to use a gift. Figuring out how to control it and getting enough power to use it. My gift can get me all the power I need- maybe a little too much power. People have told me how they control their gifts, so it won't take me as long. It was trial and error for a while there anyways."

Carlisle nodded, "Amazing, no wonder you terrify Aro."

Renesmee-at least, I think it was Renesmee- came back into the room from the kitchen. Carlisle looked up at her, she was grinning. "Did I hear that someone was terrifying Aro? Can I help?" I think I have a sister in spirit here.

Carlisle smiled in response. "How are you, Nessie?"

"I'm good, thanks." She sat down beside him. She looked at us. "Hello, would you be Ari and Alec?"

Alec nodded, and I said yes. She smiled at us, "I probably shouldn't trust you," she said, grinning at Alec, she had that big open smile that made people want to grin in response. "But I won't tell anyone that I do if you don't."

Alec grinned, "Whatever you want." He seemed nervous about something. I'll have to ask him later.

Renesmee looked around the room, "I just came to ask Aunt Alice something, is she here, or are they at school?"

Tanya shook her head, "they're at school. You could always go there- it's lunch time right now and Alice will see you coming and head off of school property to talk to you."

Nessie nodded, "I think I'll do that then- thanks guys." With that she left the room and went to go find Alice- I wonder what she's going to ask her about...

Carlisle began to speak again, "I'd like to try something else when Bella gets back. Apart from that though, I can't really think of more experiments... for now."

If Carlisle wasn't so nice then I would have been worried about the 'for now', except I trust him and- better yet- Alec trusts him. I trust Alec's opinion more than I trust mine, he thinks things through while I just jump right in and almost get us killed, and then Alec ends up doing damage control.

Yeah, welcome to my life.

Alec looked at Carlisle. "Do you have a soccer ball anywhere?"

"In the shed." Alec and I walked out to the shed and grabbed the ball. I wondered why he had asked where it was. He didn't like sports, at all.

Alec passed the ball to me and I kicked it back. A feat that would have been impossible for me had I been human- I was the biggest klutz ever. "So do you want to tell me what was bothering you when Kate asked you how you mastered her gift so quickly." Oh... he wanted to have a private conversation.

I think this proves the point I made earlier about who thinks things through.

"Will you tell me what bothered you about Renesmee?"

His face grew surprised, and then he got the kind of wry smile that you get when you know that you've let something slip. "You noticed that, huh?"

"Of course."

"I was afraid she'd hate me. I've had people hate me before and never cared, but for some reason I just want the Cullen's to like me." He frowned.

"You do know that's a normal reaction, right?. Aro plays on that fact, making you want to fit in with the guard so you'll do what he says, so you've learned to not feel that need. It wouldn't really be all that surprising that you trust Carlisle more than you trust Aro, so you want to fit in with _Carlisle's _family, not_ Aro's_ coven."

He nodded, grinning ruefully. "I see your point. Now spill, what's bugging you about your gift?"

"It's too powerful, and I haven't had to do anything for it."

"No, you haven't done anything hard lately at all, just been kidnapped, dragged to Italy, died and turned into a vampire, been tortured, swam across the Atlantic Ocean... nope nothing hard happening in your life at all." His voice absolutely _oozed _sarcasm.

I shot him a glare; I do not want to laugh about this topic. "What I mean is, what if I start reacting badly to this power and turn into Jane or Aro?"

"You're afraid the power will corrupt you?" I nodded glumly, "Ari, I've never seen a vampire less likely to act like Aro. Jane turned into him because she was already open to corruption and Aro wanted her to be evil. You are heading in the opposite direction." I raised my eyebrow at him, still not believing it, "Aro turned you, what? A week ago-ish? And you've somehow managed to end up on the other side world turning into a veggie vamp. Trust me on this one, you are not going to turn into Jane. If you start to I'll be sure to let you know."

"We'll see." I smiled at him, I felt better and he knew it.

Stupid over confident... I shot the ball straight at his head. He head butted it towards me. Our little game of pass the ball got more intense after that.

You probably could have heard us laughing half way across the world.

**Carlisle POV**

Esme was making up some food for Nessie and Jake. She looked out the back window at Ari and Alec. "I really like those kids Carlisle, I know Alec is older than I am, and it shows too. But there's still something childish about him. He's so unused to positive emotions he's like a child on that front. I mean did you hear that conversation? He's afraid of wanting to fit in! If I could get my hands on Aro's throat..." She made a violent wringing gesture with her hands.

"I agree, I agree." I murmured soothingly, "remember Alice's vision. They'll be happy as soon as Aro is gone." Please let that day come to us soon.

"I know, but it makes me angry to see them like this." She looked out the window and smiled, "I hope it snows soon, I know Alec probably hasn't had a snowball fight before. The idea of throwing snow at someone would seem ridiculous to him. And we all know Ari will beam him in the back of the head with one." She gave the kind of sigh a mother would give when talking about her child. She already cared for them like she would her own children.

Although Ari and Alec were not true immortal children, they were still changed young enough to have that kind of innocence about them, the one that made people want to protect them. For anyone over about thirteen the innocence would disappear, but for Ari, Alec and Maggie they would always have people wanting to protect them. Jane had screwed it up for herself by being a bit... overbearing.

In the rest of Alice's vision she said they were our family. She said that her vision was becoming strangely blurred after Aro died in the vision where we would win. She couldn't see any visions of Aro dying at all and the area behind all the backs of all the vampires after that were blurred in a way similar to how Bella had a blurry spot around herself when she was pregnant with Renesmee.

And just like with Bella's pregnancy, whatever was causing the blurring around us was becoming a stronger and stronger future. The day before Ari and Alec arrived the pictures were slightly blurry, now she could hardly see anything at all.

The future may be uncertain, but until then maybe we could welcome some new members to our family. I looked out the window at the playing children. Alice said that it would happen. Why not let it? Even Rosalie likes them- and we all know that that is high praise. Esme sighed and looked out the window again. No, I definitely couldn't imagine anything better.


	10. Chapter Nine

**A/N: I'm starting to run out of things to say... ah well, I doubt you lot care anyways. You're here for the story, so here it is!**

**Chapter Nine- Crazy Dreams**

**Carlisle POV**

After my previous conversation with Esme I was sure Alice's vision of our family would come true. But I wasn't sure if I should hold a vote now, or wait until everyone gets to know them more. I knew that I wouldn't want any people other than our family around when we make the vote. And I definitely don't want Ari and Alec around; it would be painful for them.

Edward had come home earlier today and heard my thoughts, he had very quietly informed me that Ari and Alec were suited for our family too, he said wait until they're not around to vote. That for them it would be like waiting within hearing distance of heaven while the angels voted to let you in. Not the nicest thing you can do to someone. Especially when Ari and Alec have been through so much.

Alice came waltzing down the stairs, she turned to look at me, "I'm taking the children shopping, they've got like four outfits each, and that isn't enough. They need at least ten." I smiled; trust Alice to worry about clothes. I'd hold the vote now, but Alice wouldn't be here... it's kind of something she would need to be in on.

The expression on Alice's face turned grave, you would often forget that she sees things you couldn't, and that she was mature beyond her years because of her attitude. Then she'd get like this and you'd realize that she is very, very intelligent and very, very powerful. "Do it Carlisle, and I vote yes. I'm sure you'll find that it won't be necessary to hear my vote though." Her face got normal again, "Ari, Alec! Get in here!"

Ari and Alec appeared in the room. Alice looked at them. "We are going shopping." Her tone broached no argument, and Ari and Alec had both realized by now that arguing with Alice was bad for your health.

Well, mostly stopped arguing anyway. Ari looked at her, "Alice, in case you don't remember our earlier conversation with Rosalie. Me a big scary vampire, taking big scary vampire into shopping mall is a no-no."

"Alec, grab her hand. If she looks like she's about to kill someone then take her senses." Alec gave her a _look_; it was so eloquent you could practically hear what he was thinking. "I don't care that she's your mate. We. Are. Going. Shopping." She enunciated each word like a staccato, as if she was talking to two year olds.

"Yes Alice." They both sighed in unison.

She clapped her hands together. "Great! Get in the car, children! You need a lot of stuff." They threw me a look that said 'save us' I just waved goodbye. Ari gave a huge sigh and walked out the door, Alice shot her a huge glare. Alec was much better at schooling his expression. He didn't make it totally emotionless; I suspect that if Alec is looking at you with no emotion at that you are- or soon will be- dead. His face was vaguely interested, like he had seen an interesting bug on the carpet, Alice rolled her eyes and pushed him out the door.

"Bye guys."

I heard her car pull out of the driveway. I looked around the house. "Family meeting in the kitchen guys." It only took them a few seconds to arrive, soon Bella, Edward, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie and Esme were sitting at the table. I went and sat down with them.

"Has Alice told you anything yet?"

"Only that we should consider how we would feel with Ari and Alec as part of our family," said Rosalie. "Frankly, I would love to have them. I've missed having children around since Nessie left."

"They wouldn't exactly be children," murmured Edward, "Alec is over a thousand years old."

"You know what I mean Edward, Nessie wasn't exactly a child either. Having a real child in this kind of environment is impossible; we should settle for not hurting anyone and work with what we can have. Besides, Alec knows nothing outside of fighting and Ari is exactly how old she looks. They may be adults in their own right, but they are still children as well."

"I simply wished to make a point Rose; you know I agree with you too."

I nodded at them. "Alice said that her vote was yes. She's out buying them more clothes right now. I'd never have thought to see Alice dragging Alec shopping... My vote is yes to. They are kind and fit in with our family." Four votes yes, zero votes no.

Bella smiled, "I'm with Edward on this one. We need kids for our family to be complete. Alec and Ari may be running from Aro, but so are the rest of us. They just had the misfortune to be turned by him as opposed to you." She shot me a grin.

Jasper nodded, I wasn't sure of his vote, he was a soldier and Alec was of the former enemy, not willingly, but he was still the enemy at one time. "I vote that they join our family. He was stuck in a situation ten times worse than mine, no one should have to bear that. I say we protect them, let them join our family. No harm can come of it." I hadn't been expecting that, but I see his point.

Jasper had been able to leave Maria by just walking away and he had described how terrifying it was- Constantly looking over your shoulder, fearing that you would have to fight for your freedom, even with friends. With Alec it must have been a lot worse, he had no one to run with, knowing that he wouldn't be able to just walk away, that Demitri and Afton would catch him no matter what he did. And that once he was caught Aro would kill millions and make him watch, torture him, and make him kill too. No wonder Jasper said we should protect him and Ari.

Esme hissed, "They may be adults in their own right, but they are also children. No one should have to go through what they did. Especially children. Ari is twelve years old, almost thirteen; her birthday is in two weeks. We must protect them."

Emmett nodded. "I agree with that. I love the little gremlins and no one messes with my baby siblings."

"It's decided then? They join us, how do we ask them? Remember that they may not want to live with us after all."

"Somehow I doubt that," chuckled Edward, "but I guess that the only way to know is to wait and see what happens."

**Arianna POV**

Alice drove to the biggest mall she could find, it happened to be in St. Johns. Now normally this would have been a fairly long drive, but let's face it, this is Alice we're talking about. The words _slow_ and _driving_ are not words you're going to hear her say in the same sentence, not unless there's the word _not_ somewhere in said sentence as well.

Alec looked at the mall with apprehension. "There were clothing stores all over the drive Alice, why did we have to come here?"

She threw him an incredulous look, "if I ever catch you two wearing anything from those _stores, _Then I'll burn your clothes. That's what I did with most of Bella's old sweatpants." Alec and I glanced at each other, he was trying not to laugh and I just shrugged.

Alice hopped out of the car and began walking to the mall. We started to follow her in. She shot between stores like a pixie on crack- literally. It was insane. Alec's eyes got really huge and he was looking around with his mouth open. "Don't swallow any flies now." I teased. His mouth snapped shut.

Alice dragged us into American Eagle and began piling the clothes into our hands. "Go try these on."

We walked to the dressing room, Alec was following me. "When was the last time you were in a mall?" I whispered; no human would be able to hear us over the loud music.

"I've never been in one. The only time I could get out of the castle is when I was on a mission, and the Cullens are the only vampires who frequent human shopping malls. It's rather big..." He went into one of the change rooms and started trying on the clothes.

There was nothing wrong with the clothes she got me, they were just really expensive. I stood outside of the change rooms with Alice. She had given him more clothes to try on. "Alice there's no way I can afford these clothes. I have no money remember?"

"I'm paying for it."

"But I'm not going to be able to pay you back." I hissed at her.

"We have more money than this in cash back at our house Ari, money is not an issue. Calm down." She looked at the humans around us warningly.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

Alice hugged me, "It's not your fault."

Alec walked out of the change room and slung his arm over me. Alice rolled her eyes. "Alec, no human boy your size is going to be able to carry all that with one arm." He shot her a glare and shifted the clothing so it looked like he was expending a little more effort, still managing to get a hold of my hand. Safety first after all, not massacring the mall comes before holding clothing with one arm.

We stayed in that store for only twenty minutes, but Alice dragged us to at least five other clothes stores (I lost count) two shoe stores and one store to get all the 'necessary' accessories.

Alice needs major therapy. Sometimes I wonder if it isn't possible to have just a little too much money.

Alice paid for all the clothing and led us around to about five other stores. Eventually- when the sum of money she was spending made both of us wince- we all piled back into the car with her, the bags in the trunk.

We got back to the house and things were strangely silent. The others still weren't back from hunting, it wasn't all that surprising. It takes a lot to feed ten or so vampires with two or three humans each.

The Denali's were off playing football in the back field. You'd expect the Cullens to be out there playing sports with them, they are all majorly competitive and it's not every day that there's another coven here playing a sport that they can join in on.

We went into the house and carried the bags into the spare room upstairs before throwing the clothes onto the two separate beds.

"Ari, Alec, can you come down here for a second?" Carlisle asked, it sounded like he was in the living room.

We waltzed down the stairs; there was something about the atmosphere of the house that made want to feel happy. "Yes Carlisle?" The rest of the Cullens were in the living room too, sitting in the chairs and couches.

Are we in trouble? Maybe I was right and Alice did spend too much on our shopping trip. After I thought that I could've sworn that I heard Edward laughing. He held up his hand. "Sorry Ari, it's just that no one can control Alice's shopping habits. You are most definitely right about some of us needing therapy."

Everyone looked back at Carlisle. Carlisle took that as a cue and began to speak, the words were slightly hesitant, but for anyone who isn't a vampire it wouldn't have shown.

"We were wondering if you'd like to join our family?" I felt like I had been hit in the face with a board, I looked over at Alec who looked pretty much the same way I did. "I know it's really fast," Carlisle continued quickly when neither of us said anything, "but it normally is. We knew Rose by sight only when she joined us, and we'd never seen Emmett before. You don't have to; it's your choice and your choice only." You could tell he was beginning to think we'd say no.

Alec spoke then, "I think you're misunderstanding why we're quiet." His eyes were glowing with happiness, I know mine were too. "We'd love to, we really would Carlisle. So yes, we'll join your family."

Esme bounced off the couch and wrapped us in a hug. "It's about time you two had a family." Eventually all the Cullens joined into a huge group hug. Everyone was so happy; I could understand why the Cullens weren't afraid to stand out at school, to be different. When you have a family like this the opinions of others don't matter.

The nomads walked through the door then. Zafrina started laughing, "I'd have thought it would have taken at least a week for Alice's vision to come true about your family Carlisle, but it's been only two days!"

I know I should probably cared what Alice vision was about, but I trust Alice enough to figure that if it was something that I would need to know that she'd tell me. And surrounded by the congratulations and happiness of the moment I couldn't really find enough negative energy to worry about it.

I didn't even think about my human family, back home and mourning. They would get over me, go on with their lives. I can be happy without doing my sister's chores for her. If I thought that they were in danger I'd go and help them.

And the inconvenient truth was that I had been with the Cullens- as Zafrina said- for two days and my bond with them was already stronger than it had been with my human family. I managed that in two days, and I had been with my human family for twelve years.

Despite all the new people I was friends with though, as I travelled around the room my hand never left Alec's, some types of love do truly triumph over all.

Emmett pulled out a few board games that we played with them. My earlier assumption they were insanely competitive was correct, they threw things at each other as distractions, and they got Zafrina to take away peoples sight. It got pretty intense- the other vampires in the house were cheering and yelling. The hilarious thing though is watching Carlisle like that. Alec and I are both competitive enough to fit in easily. Carlisle is just so laid back; you'd never guess that he's just as insanely competitive as the rest of the family.

We spent the rest of the night laughing and talking, I've never had more fun in my life.

One leader got tired of the UN saying that the happiness of people was based on money and welfare. He decided to take a simple poll, asking three hundred thousand people around the world if they were happy. The richest nations, like the USA and Canada said that they weren't happy while the poorer ones said that yes, they were very happy, even in the middle of civil wars and famines, they were happy. They were grateful for what they had.

The Chinese called the need the richer nations felt 'the hungry ghost' constantly wanting more stuff, more money.

Our house felt happy, we may not live to see tomorrow with the Volturi angry at us, and we'll probably all die very slow deaths, but we're grateful for the time that we had- That although we may die tomorrow we should make the most of life until then, be happy.

I know that my old family wouldn't have been able to just be happy, they would have whined and complained.

Then again, they've never been near a slow and painful death either.

Family is a good thing to have. Many vampires travelled alone, I guess what had happened was they hadn't been able to use all the new stronger emotions, so they had killed all their emotions and turned them into a black abyss that made them act like monsters.

I realized what Alec had meant when he said that there was no chance of me turning into a monster. I would never shun off emotions the way Jane did to make myself stronger. I would embrace the new emotions; turn them positive, as opposed to killing them. That would protect my mind and stop me from turning into a monster.

I suppose all vegetarian vampires did this to an extent, when they cling to their humanity they make it easier to love. It's why we can live in such huge families happily.

I've always been subconsciously calling myself a monster, but I know differently now.

There are human serial killers ten times more monstrous than your average vampire. It's not what you are that makes you a monster. It's what you do. I know Edward thinks vampires are eternally damned for what we are. I think he's missing a few key points in that assumption. Can you see Carlisle or Esme or Alec or any of this family in hell?

Neither can I.

I held Alec's hand tighter, even hell can be bearable with someone you love, but being in heaven all alone, without Alec, would not be something I could bear.


	11. Chapter Ten

**A/N: And do I need to even say anything? Things start to get going in here, so if you really want me to finish... I love reviews ;]**

**Chapter 10- Burn Beautiful**

**Arianna POV**

I was sitting at the coffee table with Alec; we were playing a game of cards. Alice had been playing too, but she had to go get changed for school. I put down two fours and one five on the table. "Three fours," I lied.

Alec smirked at me, "Cheat." I swore and grabbed all the cards in the pile- I was a really horrible liar. Our game continued along those lines- and by that I mean I was losing pathetically- until Alice came back down the stairs. Rosalie was with her. I could hear Edward and Bella talking about what they had today; apparently Bella had a field trip this afternoon that she was going to skip.

I don't blame her; no other Cullens were in the class, so she would have been stuck on a bus with only a bunch of humans. Not the smartest thing you can do when the Volturi are trying to reduce you to a pile of ash. The buddy system was invented for a reason- going off alone causes painful things apparently. Zafrina was going to go and pick Bella up right before her class left for the trip. Our 'dear aunt Margaret' was going to pass away this afternoon.

Both she and Bella really wanted to scare the humans, and Zafrina can be quite intimidating when she wants to. Alice had managed to persuade Zafrina, Kachiri and Senna to wear dresses and real clothing instead of fur. It really didn't suit them, it looked nice, but it didn't match their personalities.

Eventually the rest of my family went out to the cars and drove off to school. Charlotte gave a relaxed sigh and leaned back into the chair. "Finally some peace and quiet." Alec and I traded mischievous glances and she shot us a glare. "Don't even think about it. You two fit in to well with this family for your own good."

We just shrugged and kept on playing cards. We could bug the nomads later.

**Alice POV**

I walked into the school; our first class today is math. Very boring, history and science class change over time, but the rules for math always stay the same. One plus one equals two, boring. I didn't have anyone in this class with me either, so I couldn't even make fun of the teacher.

I sat down in my chair and pulled my books out. I managed to pay attention for the first half and hour, then I got bored and started checking the future. The blurred spots were becoming more and more prominent, I could see for the next week or so, but it got blurry after that.

It's like my ability to see long distance is vanishing, like the power of my sight is weakening. I resisted the urge to let out a huge snarl. This is just like when Bella got pregnant with Nessie, but worse. Whatever it was isn't going away the way Nessie did after she was born, it was here to stay, and it was making my sight go away as the possibility for it to happen became more and more powerful!

I checked the near future again, something I had to do more and more often as my long distance sight vanished. I saw Ari and Alec going hunting, they weren't going very far out. Ari got two deer and Alec got a grizzly bear. That was when things went bad.

_They turned to run back towards the house when something shot out and hit Alec. It was Afton, Ari lunged forwards to try and help Alec. Jane stepped out and hit Ari with her gift before Ari could block it._

_Alec was fighting Afton and trying to use his gift, but for some reason, Alec's gift wasn't working on Afton. I could see Sylvia hiding in the trees, the little bitch was a shield! Of course Alec's gift wasn't working. Alec was a good fighter, but after a while Afton got tired of playing and used his gift to overwhelm Alec's mind._

_Alec was in mid twist and he collapsed and lay there, totally unmoving. Sylvia, Demitri and Felix left their hiding places. _

"_Is your shield up Sylvia?" asked Afton. The petit blonde child nodded. Afton gestured for Felix to come grab Alec. "I'll take her while you decide what to do with them Jane."_

_Jane nodded and stopped using her gift, Afton looked at Ari for a few seconds before she stood up and walked over to him. Her face had this horrible blankness to it, it wasn't Ari anymore - it was Ari's shell. Jane walked over to the two of them and smiled. "Hello brother." Alec snarled in response._

I stopped watching the vision then; watching what Jane did to them wouldn't help anyone. I had to call Carlisle and get this stopped before it happened. No one messes with my baby siblings.

I held up my hand. "Mr. Elliott, may I go to the washroom."

He looked at me, "of course Alice. Are you feeling okay? You look a little stressed."

"No not really, I'm feeling a little queasy, can I go home?"

"Of course Alice, relax and get better." I opened the door and walked out before I broke into a run and pulled out my phone. Carlisle picked up his phone immediately. "Carlisle!"

"What is it Alice?" He asked quickly, he could tell something had me terrified.

"Have Ari and Alec left yet?"

"Yes. They left ages ago."

"Get everyone you can out to them, the Volturi are making a move." He didn't even bother hanging up his phone; he just dropped it and started getting everyone ready as fast as he could.

I love Carlisle.

I hung up my phone and pulled the rest of my startled siblings out of class. The teachers were looking at us funny, but right now I didn't care. We could go to a new school; we couldn't put Ari and Alec back together again if Jane turned them to ash.

I remembered that Ari had borrowed Esme's cell phone this morning. I tried calling her. It started ringing.

Someone picked up the phone, "Hello," my siblings and I looked at each other hopelessly, Emmett let out a snarl of fury and everyone else started hissing.

"Hello Afton, I don't suppose you'd let me talk to Ari." I already knew the answer; I let out a tiny hiss of frustration, one that the phone wouldn't be able to pick up.

Afton laughed, it wasn't a friendly laugh. It had a cruel edge to it. "No Alice, I don't think I can. I'd have let her answer the phone herself; it would have been fun messing with you. But she can't really talk right now; she can't really make any noise at all. She can't even walk." I let out a snarl of pure fury, my entire family echoing it.

"Let them go." I spat out.

"Now that would make Aro angry, besides, why would I bother letting them go? There's nothing you can do about it Cullen." He hung up the phone and I just stood there.

"That's it," Emmett said, his voice filled with rage, "Aro dies. Now."

**Arianna POV**

Demitri lifted me off of the ground and started walking, I couldn't move. They had crushed every joint in my body the same way they did my throat. It was really unnecessary, Afton could have held my mind, and with Sylvia around all Felix had to was hold on to Alec.

Not that I object to Afton getting the hell out of my head. But they decided that it would be better to totally destroy us so we can't even move a finger. If they were to set us on fire right now we wouldn't be able to run away. But Jane's a bit of a psycho bitch from hell, she's not going to kill us, she's going to make us suffer.

Surprise.

They travelled through the woods to two cars. They were both silver with darkly tinted windows; Felix took Alec towards one car and me towards the other. I began to try to twist around and get to Alec. It was less like twisting and more like just shifting slightly; a hissing noise came out of my throat as I tried to tell them to stop.

Demitri chuckled; his voice was deep and smooth, "don't do that. It's funny, but Jane finds it annoying." When he said that Alec tried to look at me, I could tell he was worried. I calmed down and stopped pissing Jane off; I knew it was making Alec worried about me.

I was more worried about him, I wasn't the one stuck in a car with Jane.

Felix put me in the backseat of the car. Afton was driving; I hope he drives like Alice. I would love to see him explain to a cop why he had a dead girl in the back of his car. Afton would probably just kill the cop, but it would be funny until that happened.

Esme's phone started ringing, "can you pass that to me Felix?" asked Afton, "I wonder who would be calling the little kitten. Perhaps she's made a new friend?"

I gulped, I knew Aro would find out we were Cullens now, but he's not going to like it. Either he'll lock us up until he's exterminated them, or he'll just kill us. Afton looked at me as Felix handed him the phone. "I wonder who it could be, she looks absolutely terrified."

"Hello?"

I heard dead silence on the other end of the phone, and then there were a bunch of snarls. Felix raised his eyebrow at me and smirked.

Alice started talking; her voice was cold and hard. "Hello Afton," she spat out, "I don't suppose you'd let me talk to Ari?" Don't piss off the pixie Afton.

"No Alice, I don't think I can. I'd have let her answer the phone herself; it would have been fun messing with you. But she can't really talk right now; she can't really make any noise at all. She can't even walk." The snarls increased, I don't think I've ever heard an angrier sound.

"Let them go." I could hear the unspoken threat in her voice.

"Now that would make Aro angry, besides, why would I bother letting them go? There's nothing you can do about it Cullen." He hung up the phone.

Afton was smirking, but Felix decided to initiate the taunting this time. "So you're a Cullen now?"

I shook my head a little bit, as if I was saying no.

"Don't give me that, they only react like that if it's one of their own in danger. Aro is going to love this..." I started to tremble.

Aro is scary.

**Alec POV**

Damnit, not again. I thought I might have actually gotten away this time. And now Ari was caught too. If she had ran she would have been able to get away, but instead she has to try to help me.

And she says that I'm overprotective. Aro hates her, that much is clear- which means that the chances of her living through the next twenty-four hours are slim to none.

I resisted the urge to snarl. Jane was sitting in front of me, and we all know she would torture me for breathing. I couldn't move at all. There's a reason Jane is often referred to as the psycho bitch from hell.

**Carlisle POV**

I frowned and paced back and forth across the living room. Alice had called again and told us to wait in the living room. We were all angry right now. If we ended up storming Volterra I wouldn't be surprised, this was the kind of blind rage that made people do stupid things. Put it all together in a group with strengthened emotions and you have one very angry mob.

Alice and the others were all furious as well, they gathered everyone into the living room, Alice began to talk, her voice was entirely devoid of emotion. You could feel the rage coming off of her, but her voice did not show it. "We are going to Volterra, now."

Snarls of assent travelled through the room. Here we go... nothing I can do will stop this one- might as well join in.

"If we leave now, we _might_ win, if we don't we _will_ lose. Something about Ari and Alec is vital to the future of our race." I'm not entirely sure, but I think Alice might be exaggerating just a little. But still...

Well... put it that way. "Let's go." We drove out to the airport, ignoring the traffic laws. Alice had walkie-talkies placed in every car so we could communicate. Her voice buzzed over the radio. "Guys, I know this might seem a bit strange but, how do you feel about stealing an airplane?"

Everyone agreed quickly to steal the airplane. As much as I hate to say it, vampires are criminals, we can't help it.

Breaking human laws is just so much fun.

**Arianna POV**

The plane touched down on the pavement, we were in Italy now. Jane had a little smug grin on her face the entire time that was really pissing me off. If I had been able to move I would have wiped it off her face.

I really hate Jane.

The drive seemed way too short, I don't care how boring it is, I just don't want to get to Volterra and _talk_ to Aro. Talking to Aro always seemed to be a painful experience, and I know Aro is furious right now. When he finds out we joined the Cullens... well... things will probably get very, very ugly.

Afton and Felix were talking quietly; mostly about bets for how Aro would kill Alec. Unlike Jane Afton prefers the more psychological side of torture- he knows that having Alec dead would absolutely shatter my sanity. I could hear back to the other car, no-one was saying anything there. Having Jane around can probably put a bit of a dampener on your mood.

We pulled into the underground parking garage of the castle and I started shaking again. Afton just started laughing, one day I'm going to rip his head off. "The little kitten is trembling in her boots." I don't know how he manages to be so aggravating, really, I don't. I probably would have been able to stand just about any nickname other than _kitten._

I looked over and saw Alec shooting glares at Afton too. He's just a bit overprotective sometimes, I'm probably not any better.

They carried us inside and walked down a few halls into the throne room. Aro, Marcus, Caius, Chelsea and Renata were the only ones that were inside. Aro smiled delightedly at the guards holding us. "Excellent, I see you found them. Where were they?"

"With the _Cullens_." Afton spat out. The grin slid off of Aro's face. He walked over and grabbed my hand. Well damn... why does he always have to grab my hand? Why couldn't he grab Jane's hand? Jane probably wants for him to hold her hand. He sighed and took a step back.

"It would appear that Ari is more powerful than we thought." He said, turning to his brothers, "her gift is whatever the gifts of those around her are- as long as she can sing." He smirked when he said that last part. Yeah, enjoy crushing my throat while it lasts. "If we don't kill her then she may escape again and return to them, if we kill her she won't be able to do that, but then again, we won't be able to use her either and with her gift we could be invincible. What should we do brothers?"

You could tell Aro didn't really want to destroy so much power, but that he was starting to see that he would probably have to kill me. But what about Alec, we were intertwined as one, if I die he would be hurt, and I don't want Alec to be hurt.

Caius looked over, "She is too much of a danger. Kill her." He said the last part with a shrug.

Marcus looked at his two plotting brothers, "If you kill her you will have to kill Alec too, he'd become useless to us with his mate dead." You know what's a really bad conversation? When people are talking about killing you the same way they'd talk about the weather. It makes you kind of nervous.

Aro and Caius shared a long look, "they die." Those words, said with absolutely no emotion, can be the creepiest words you'll ever hear.

Not that I'm going to be hearing very many words after this.

Demitri dropped me on the ground and backed up. Felix did the same thing with Alec. I couldn't even turn to look at Alec, my back was towards him.

Caius pulled out a strange metal object. It was ornately carved and had a curve to it. He pulled some kind of mechanism in it and it burst into flame.

He took a step towards me, I was going to go first. All I could think was how Alec must be right now. I wanted to hold his hand, I know I'm terrified. Death is a strange thing, the one thing that no-one knows anything about.

And I'm about to dive in head first. I could only see the fire coming closer and closer to me.

When I was a human, death was always a possibility, something that we lived around for our entire short lives. Always fearing, yet always accepting as well. When my grandfather died my family had told me that it was alright, death was peaceful, like closing your eyes and never waking up again. No pain. No nothing, just peace.

As much as I hate to ruin the moment of peacefulness... all I can really think right now is 'they were sure as hell wrong'. I tried to take a deep breath, a natural instinct when I felt the need to calm myself, but my body was to broken even for that. The fire sped closer to me flaring with sharp bursts and low flickers, mimicking the pain raging inside of me. I couldn't move, I could just wait helpless as the flames sped closer.

My family may be right, death itself may be peaceful, but I know right now that dying isn't.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**A/N: Here you go peoples [= enjoy it... and tell me in a review if you did.**

**Chapter 11- Fire Dance**

**Alice POV**

"Gas!" I hissed, "If we're even a _second _late then it will be too late. They'll be dead." I could see Volterra looming up ahead of us, a dark shadow over the beautiful Italian landscape. Sure, it looks nice enough, until you find out who lives there. Then it isn't so nice anymore.

Everyone was pushing their cars as fast as they would go, terror can be the cause of many emotions, love, hate. Right now it was causing a deep, mind numbing anger.

We shot through the gates into Volterra; people threw themselves out of our way, shouting curses at us. We didn't slow going down the narrow twisting streets, we all had our destination in mind and we were totally focused on getting there as fast as we could.

"They're in the turret guys; we're going to have to climb up the wall very quietly. Whoever goes first has to get Caius before he sets Ari on fire." The cars skidded into place in an alley beside the castle. Everyone hopped out; we began climbing up the walls. We didn't really care if a human saw us, we can deal with that problem, if the children die then we won't be able to fix that.

Emmett was the first one up. He leaped through the window; snarls erupted from inside the castle.

I really hope we live through this one.

**Arianna POV**

Caius continued to walk towards me, fire spilling from the object in his hand. Time slowed, each second felt like an hour. Death continued towards me, unstoppable and irrevocable. It was over, there would be no escape from this one.

Well damn, that was morbid. Think happy thoughts Ari, happy thoughts.

Caius was about to take that final step, I could feel the heat coming off of the fire blasting against my face. I began to accept death- not that I wasn't terrified, it's impossible not to be- I figured that pretty soon I would be dead, so I might as well try to enjoy my last milliseconds.

I started thinking about my past, first with little human memories, people are right, your life does flash before your eyes before you die. Not because of something mystical, simply because when you don't know about your future the past is all you have to fall back on.

_Flash..._

_I was running down a road, I was five years old. I had a frog in my hand and I was chasing my sister with it. She tripped and fell right into a mud puddle. I let the frog go and went to go help my sister up, offering my hand to her. She reached up and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the mud with her._

_Flash..._

_It was first grade, I was playing with play dough and Sam came and asked me if he could play. I said he could. We were best friends ever since._

_Flash... _

_Felix lunging from out behind a tree, grabbing me._

_Flash... _

_Alec and I surrounded by darkness, talking._

_Flash..._

_The Cullens hugging Alec and I, laughing._

_Flash_

Emmett jumping through a window, landing on the unsuspecting Caius's shoulders, ripping his head off and coolly dismembering his body.

Wait... What? I looked around and saw the faces of my family, the suicidal idiots, there is no way all of them are going to make it out alive. Emmett picked up the flame thrower and set Caius on fire. A dark purple smoke started filling the room; it smelled funny- like incense.

In a macabre sense of way I had enjoyed watching Emmett kill Caius, Caius had been about to kill Alec after all. People were flowing into the room, our family and friends through the window and guard members through the doors.

People were fighting all around us, a strange twisting dance of death. Time seemed to slow as guard members fell- most of them were newborns. The older, more experienced guards were starting to come into the room though; it would only be second before we're outnumbered.

The killing dances continued in the room. I saw Edward and Jasper tag teaming Santiago, destroying him. Felix jumped on Maggie, taking her out. Siobhan gave a scream of anguish and lunged for Felix, Liam joined in and Felix was forced to retreat. He backed up and two newborns took his place. Zafrina and her sisters were trying to get at Jane and Sylvia, while others tried to get at Bella.

There was so much fighting, so much misery. Why would we do this to ourselves? Why couldn't we all just get along? The anger and death rolled over me, building up in my limbs; waves of power began to wash over me. It was literally like waves, on person would die and another wave would hit.

What's happening? I felt the cool burning sensation of healing. I shouldn't be healing... I turned to look at Alec; he still looked the same as before.

The fighting continued and the power built up, I felt like I was about to explode, like I would spontaneously combust. I squinted my eyes in pain and clutched at the floor. Alec was looking at me, I tried to get over to him, but my legs and shoulders were still destroyed.

I gave out a chocked sob, it _hurt_, it was almost worse than Jane torturing me, it was almost like I was going through a second change, the power made me feel like I was on fire. I could see everything, hear everything, and _feel_ everything. I tried to get over to Alec.

One of the newborn guards that had survived so far saw me move, until then the Volturi had considered us helpless, just something to wipe off the floor after the fight. But now that I was moving we became a threat again.

She pulled out a match. I tried to go faster, to help Alec. The power continued to build, thrashing around inside of me like a living flame. The power felt like fire now, burning, consuming. And it was consuming me. The newborn continued to walk towards Alec, the power boomed to and overwhelming summit.

The newborn dropped the match.

And that was when all hell broke loose- literally. I screamed, and the power burst out of me, burning up my body and tearing through the air, the power felt like the hottest fire and the coldest ice- inhuman and unstoppable, the snarls of fury echoing around the room turned into shouts of confusion. I kept on screaming.

"No,_ No, NO!" _on the last one the scream changed, it wasn't a scream anymore, it was like a thousand wolves howling, like nails dragging against a chalkboard, it was every sound combined into one, pummelling against the world. The power tore up my throat, pouring out of every pore in my body- burning, changing. I felt like I was going to explode, there was too much death, too much power.

Like a monster it just refused to stop, it built up until I didn't even know how I was alive anymore, it wouldn't stop, and it just kept going. I had no idea what could be the source of this power, and I didn't care. All I could think was 'he's dead, he's dead.'

And then all the power left my body, I didn't even have enough energy to move anymore. The world shattered around me, it sunk into darkness and I collapsed.

_And then I was walking down a path again, it was like I was having a flashback again. Except this time I knew it wasn't a flashback, I'd never been here before. I tuned around the bend in the path and came into a clearing, there was a fork in the path, and I looked down each one, trying to figure out what way to go._

_I saw someone coming down one of the other paths, I jumped behind a tree and looked around, wondering who it was, this land was eerily quiet and inhumanly beautiful the woods were filled with flowers and perfectly green, like the faerie worlds you see on T.V., there was no noise except for the sound of my breathing and the crunch of gravel underneath the persons feet._

_I peeked around the tree and almost collapsed. It was Alec. "ALEC!" I shouted, he looked over so quickly you'd have expected him to grab his neck and wince. _

"_Ari? Where are we?"_

_I jumped on him and wrapped my arms around him, "I don't know... I think we might be dead, but if this is death then I'll take it." I mumbled._

_He looked around grabbing my hand, I let go of him and clutched his hand, "I'll take it too, as long as you're here. When we were in Volterra, I thought I'd lost you." His voice held a horror to it, I'm sure I would have sounded pretty much the same way._

"_Well, you didn't. I'm still here, and I'll never, ever, ever let go." I held his hand tighter and felt his clutch mine in return._

_We continued walking down the path, the forest just got more and more beautiful. I saw flowers that I'd never seen before, and colours that I didn't even know existed._

_We came to yet another clearing, there were two women sitting in the center of it. One was petit with long brown hair and huge black ebony wings. Her eyes were a deep emerald green. The other was taller; she had long blonde hair and startlingly blue eyes. She had no wings._

"_It's about time you got to this point, my children." The woman with brown hair said._

_My mouth fell open and I said the first thing that came to mind, "Sorry, we were a bit delayed, what with the whole dying thing. We'll try to be on time for these completely unscheduled appointments next time. Who are you anyway?" Alec sighed and put his arm around me protectively, ready to push me out of the way if the two strange women attacked us. _

_The blonde haired woman started laughing and the brunette just sighed, saying, "Don't worry Alec; Arianna's temper won't get her in trouble here. It's my fault anyway for making it so the child of fire has to be as close to flame as possible."_

"_Thanks," he paused for a second before rethinking the comment, "wait... what?"_

"_You know the story, you told it to Ari on two different occasions, the one about the creation of vampires... although, you're not vampires anymore, no one is- this is just the beginning of a new type of change. Eventually you will free yourselves. But you'll have to see for yourselves. Go home, talk to your family, they're worried about you." This woman is even worse than Alice- seriously, if she has the nerve to drag me here, the least she can do is tell me something instead of giving me little cryptic scentences._

_The blonde made a gesture with her hand and I felt the power building, "What are you-."I started to say._

_The world began to shimmer and I tried to hold on to Alec's hand, but whatever reality we were in vanished and my hand closed around nothing._

I felt my hand close around air and began keening, I just want Alec. Really, is that too much to ask? I kept my eyes closed tightly; I didn't want to wake up. "Shit." I heard someone swear, "Carlisle! She's awake, but she's loosing it." No surprise there, go away!

"I don't wanna be here- I don't wanna wake up!" I sobbed, still keening.

"Ari it's Carlisle. Everything is fine."

I screeched, and tried to roll away from him, but something behind me stopped my movement. It felt like my arm must be behind me, except it _wasn't._"It is not fine!" I screamed, my throat feeling raw. "Alec is _dead _and you have the nerve to tell me that everything is _fine_!"

"Ari- Alec is over there. He is not dead, you saved him. Open your eyes and look." I trusted Carlisle- he never did anything to me. He wouldn't lie about anything as important as this.

I opened my eyes, hope flaring up. I sat up really quickly. Alec was on the other side of the room, leaning up against the stone wall of the room. He was wrapped up in a blanket like I was. The blanket was shaped kind of funny, and there were black feathers pointing out one end.

"Carlisle? Why is there a bird in Alec's blank- what the fuck?" I was staring at Carlisle, Carlisle with huge black wings. "Carlisle," I said weakly, "you have wings..."

He nodded, "I noticed that myself. Everyone else has them too. When the newborn dropped the match on Alec power started flowing out of you. You sucked all the life force out of the Volturi, and then shoved it into us. It was too much for us to contain, so we changed again. I'd have to say, out of all the possible outcomes I've thought about for this war, this definitely wasn't one of them. I have no idea how you did that."

"Don't be silly... there's no way I could have done that."

He nodded, "You did Ari."

"Can you be sure that Aro didn't put some kind of chemical in the vents that would cause us to all have a mass hallucination and _think _that this was happening?" He nodded again. "Well damn, I don't remember how I did it either."

I tried to stand up to walk to Alec, but the blanket was all tangled up in my _wings_. This will take some getting used to. Carlisle gave me a hand and helped me stand up. I looked around, the throne room was totally destroyed and there was a thin film of purple smoke filling the air, vampires were sitting all around the room, talking quietly to one and other. "Do you know what could have caused you to explode like that?"

"I thought Alec was dead." My voice was flat, totally unemotional.

He winced, "that would do it. You saved everyone, although the police are outside right now trying to break the doors down because of all the noise, and it's sunny outside so we can't really go anywhere."

I stopped breathing, thinking I would lose control and go for the police when I realized something.

I wasn't thirsty anymore, my throat was raw feeling (no surprise there) but it wasn't _thirsty_. I took a deep breath, my senses were still just as sharp, and I still felt just as strong as before, but it didn't feel like I had a third degree burn in my throat anymore, awesome..

"Ari?" Carlisle asked looking at me when I didn't say anything.

"I'm not thirsty anymore."

Carlisle stopped, "Neither am I... I never thought about it." He lifted his voice. "Is anyone thirsty?"

There was a heartbeat of dead silence where everyone checked, and then the cheering started, it was a pretty pathetic cheer, but it was something. I felt the same way; I didn't quite want to cheer yet since Alec hadn't woken up. But the loss of the thirst, the monster that plagued every vampire, was something that made everyone want to cheer. We just weren't quite in the mood for it- it's okay though. We'll cheer later.

I heard a police officer shout through the door, "We know you're in there, open up! Is everyone okay? We heard screaming." We all pointedly ignored them, I think the humans are smart enough to open up a door on their own.

Alec shifted slightly, like a human about to wake up. I launched over to him, almost knocking several former vampires over in the process. There were several good natured chuckles at that.

I grabbed onto Alec with all my strength, absolutely refusing to let go and burying my head into his shoulder and inhaling his scent. "Ari?" he said, opening his eyes, I let out a sigh of relief and snuggled closer- something that I wouldn't have imagined possible.

"Right here. Don't ever almost die again," I muttered into his arm, "I don't think I could take the pressure."

"I can do that, I don't ever want to leave." He kissed me then, first on the forehead, then on the lips. I felt a burst of shock mingled with joy.

I'd like to state that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so I kissed him again... and again. What can I say, I'm making up for lost time. After a while there was a bit of whistling and pointed comments going around the room- no matter how much we changed, some things will just never change. Alec and I pointedly ignored them too, nothing is going to ruin this moment.

We did stop after a while. Once Carlisle was sure we were done he looked at Alec, and asked, "Do you have a theory about what happened?"

Alec nodded, "of course. You remember the story of the creation of vampires."

Everyone else in the room had formed a big circle around us; I realized that Alec's wings were a few shades lighter than everyone else's in the room, kind of like smoke gray. Alec started talking again when the whispers stopped. "The one with Sephrenia in it and the prophecy thing. I think that's what happened, it you remember the end it says at the end, about the children of smoke and fire. Of course, it also says stuff about them in the middle too, but the entire thing is just weird. It does fit though."

I could see the others thinking about it, "that makes a lot of sense," whispered Edward, "and it explains a lot."

We all stood silently for a few minutes, thinking things through, and the banging on the door got louder; the police were still trying to get in. "I'm shocked they haven't taken a chainsaw to it yet," muttered Kate, "the entire world heard your scream Ari, and I'm betting that we're the only vampires left on the planet."

I shrugged and just held on to Alec, given the recent experiences I wasn't planning to let go of him any time soon.

I heard human footsteps coming down the hall. The little sneaks, they slunk in through the back door. Alice grinned, "Since secrecy isn't an issue anymore we have two choices, we can jump out the window and scare the villagers, or we could wait here and scare the police."

"What if we went through the dungeon into the garage and took some of the cars?" suggested Alec.

"Oooh! Grand theft auto, good thinking Alec." said Alice happily. The police were almost through the door, we ran down the stairs behind the thrones.

I could hear one of the officer's start swearing, "What happened in here? It looks like an earthquake hit..." at least there are no dismembered limbs crawling around. Maggie was laughing, I shuddered, remembering when Felix jumped her, I had managed to bring her back to life, but it had been close.

Rosalie hotwired a few cars and we started driving, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Humans were walking up and down the streets, totally unaware of the change that had shaken this planet.

There were news reporters all over Volterra, so no one noticed us driving down the streets, the windows of the cars were so darkly tinted that you couldn't see inside. Which was a very good thing since every vampire in the car sported huge dark wings.

We drove slowly, enjoying the landscape. Italy wasn't a place many of us had visited before, the Volturi made it kind of hard to go sightseeing. By the time we reached the shore the sun was just setting over the horizon. This was the shore I had stood on with Alec a few weeks ago, it seemed like ages ago.

And now we would be leaving Italy and getting to Canada in a way that was once again impossible for humans. There was one big difference though, we wouldn't be swimming, we would be flying.

As vampires we were the nightmares that plagued a human, the things that go bump in the night. But that had changed, we just _weren't _monsters anymore. We weren't thirsty, so we wouldn't have to drink blood. We aren't bloodsucking fiends anymore- we're simply darkened angels

We jumped up and started flying, headed towards our home.


	13. Epoligue

**A/N: Here's the last bit, if I ever get a good idea for a sequel I'll make sure to post something here, but for now everything's done. Thanks so much to all those people who reviewed, your reviews made my day on several occasions.**

**Epilogue- Rising Dawn**

**Arianna POV**

I smiled slightly and leaned into Alec, we were back beside a stream at the house. With the Volturi dead we could be away from the others without being afraid. Alone time is good, as much as I love my family Alec will always be the center of the world for me- the one who keeps me from going completely insane.

Love can come in many different forms, I'm just lucky to be able to hold onto so many. As for how exactly I managed to hold onto said different types of love by totally obliterating the Volturi... well, your guess is as good as mine.

The general idea for how I was able to- for all intensive purposes- incinerate a room full of vampires and bring a few others back to life is actually quite simple once you manage to get your mind around the catastrophic size of the whole thing. You see, I control _energy _with my voice, normally the energy that controls gifts. When I saw Alec...let's say _pass out_... I tried my hardest to help him by reaching for whatever energy I could use to save him. Since I didn't have my voice to control the type of energy I grabbed, I grabbed the wrong kind of energy- I grabbed _life energy._ I sucked all of it out of the Volturi and tried to shove it into Alec, Alec couldn't hold all that energy though, so it overflowed into everyone else in the room.

We hadn't really tried anymore experiments; that ability didn't really seem like something one should poke at. It's kind of like dropping a nuclear bomb to see how big the explosion is.

When we talked to the wolves at La Push, they informed us that Nessie was alive and well, and the only change that had affected her was that she wasn't thirsty. Before that phone call it hadn't even occurred to us that my little fit may have had far-reaching effects, but when we checked around we discovered that we were the only vampires (using the term loosely) left on the planet. As for how I managed to do _that, _we all agree that you should go talk to Sephrenia, because it definitely was not my idea.

Somehow I'm not that guilty feeling- I think the world is better off without anymore immortal children, or wars in the south, or mass-murdering royal vampires... I'm just not feeling the love for all of them.

We were all moving up to Northern Canada, to hide in the Innituian Mountains. The area is virtually inaccessible to humans, so we'll be able figure some things out- like how to hide gigantic, black wings. We had discovered that we were going to have to work pretty hard at hiding them, they were a tad bit conspicuous.

And add on that the whole 'change the vampire race forever' was so not my idea. If you have a bone to pick, once again, go pick it with Sephrenia.

"Alec! Ari!" I heard Alice yell from the house, "You'd both better get your butts over here, we're about to leave!" She was being her usual bossy, controlling self. I mean really, we have an eternity, five more minutes won't hurt.

I looked at Alec, "Do we have to? I mean, we didn't even get to kissing yet."

"I can fix that," he murmured, kissing me. After a few minutes we reluctantly pulled apart. "Love you." He said, looking into my eyes. I gazed back unflinchingly. It's strange how these changes effect us, when we were human all of our emotions were weak, now though they're stronger than possible. Hate, passion, anger, sorrow... love. They're all ten times stronger. Looking into Alec's eyes I knew automatically what my response to those words would be.

"Forever."


End file.
